KOREA — Nov. 3, 2000 — A major power outage that hit Korea earlier this week and halted the production lines of chipmakers may be a blessing in disguise to both chipmakers and cleanroom equipment producers.

As many as 16 Taiwanese chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., were affected by the outage on Thursday, which was caused by a typhoon. According to published reports, many of the facilities were forced to close their production lines. The direct damage resulting from the outage was estimated to be between $3-$6 million.

One industry expert told the Korean Times newspaper that outage will likely cause chip yields to fall dramatically and could drive up the price of dynamic random access memory chips, which have recently been in a slump.

“It will take at least a week for the Taiwanese companies to normalize production and this will mean a reduction in global supply of about 2-3 percent this month,” the unidentified source told the Times.

The outage could also be a boon to cleanroom producers, who may be called on for parts and components for the damaged lines.

-Jeff VanPelt