TSMC's Kumamoto joint venture, JASM, was hit by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on July 28. Sources familiar with the fab's operations said that although TSMC's facilities are pre-equipped with seismic-resistant equipment, the intensity of this earthquake and the continuing aftershocks make some wafer breakage during processing and in storage areas unavoidable. This incident also tests TSMC's overseas fab response capabilities. However, since the currently mass-producing Kumamoto Fab 1 mostly handles mature-node processes for automotive and image sensor products with a low share of overall capacity, the impact on TSMC is expected to be limited.
JASM, TSMC's joint venture with Japanese firms Sony, Denso, and Toyota, is located in Kikuyo Town, Kumamoto Prefecture. While not at the epicenter, it is in the same prefecture and would have experienced strong shaking. TSMC has previously emphasized that its Kumamoto fab, like its other overseas fabs, adopts high-spec seismic-resistant design, including equipment anchoring, anti-vibration structures, and emergency shutdown mechanisms. When an earthquake alert is triggered, fabs typically shut down automatically, evacuate personnel, and inspect cleanrooms and equipment calibration, while confirming the safety of chemical, gas, and power systems. If the shutdown is brief, production can usually resume gradually within hours to a day; if precision equipment has shifted, recovery may take longer. TSMC stated that it is following emergency response procedures for indoor and outdoor evacuation and headcount confirmation, with the actual impact to be announced after the company completes equipment inspections. Regardless, this major earthquake will inevitably have disrupted wafer processing, and even if the fab itself is undamaged, it will still have some degree of impact on the entire automotive chip supply chain.
Kumamoto's JASM primarily produces 12-inch mature-node chips, mainly at 22/28nm and 12/16nm, with customers spanning the automotive and industrial control markets. Therefore, if the shutdown is prolonged, the most affected products are likely to be: automotive MCUs, automotive SoCs, CMOS image sensors (CIS), and industrial control chips. In addition, Kumamoto has a large concentration of semiconductor suppliers, including materials, equipment, and components makers. Even if the fab itself sustains no major damage, disruptions to transportation, power supply, or logistics could still cause short-term supply chain delays.
(News source: Economic Daily News)
