Power outage bumps DRAM prices?

April 12, 2004 – A power outage hitting the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park on April 10, did not take a serious toll on some of its semiconductor occupants, but nevertheless it may boost retail prices of DRAM chips made there.

TSMC said that the outage kept one of its 8-in. fabs and a 12-in. fab powerless for an hour, and only affecting 0.6 of the working day for those production lines, according to the Taiwan Economic News. UMC also said that the outage did not have a serious impact due to the company’s backup power systems. ProMOS claimed its 12-in. fab did not experience problems, but its 8-in. fab lost one working day. Powerchip Semiconductor claimed its 12-in. fab had just restarted when the power failure hit, limiting its impact.

Overall, the slight impact of the power failure was expected to slow output of DRAM chips produced at the park, which would increase prices.

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