William Gallagher
Apple Silicon processor manufacturer TSMC is ordering deliveries of water in an attempt to minimize disruption caused by Taiwan's ongoing drought.
Taiwan's central and southern regions are many months into a drought which now sees reservoir levels below 20% of capacity. Technology firms including Apple manufacturer TSMC are making contingency plans following a year which featured little rainfall, and no regularly-expected typhoon.
According to Reuters, the Taiwanese government is so far focused primarily on the damage to the country's auto industry. However, water shortages for all technology firms have been exacerbated by the China-US trade war.
Reportedly, the trade dispute has led to an expansion of local factories, and hence greater demand for the already diminishing water supply. TSMC told Reuters that it has not yet been directly affected, but is planning ways to postpone cutting production.
"We are making preparations for our future demand," a spokesperson told Reuters. These preparations, which the spokesperson also described as a "pressure test," involve ordering truckloads of water. The supply is being sent to TSMC's various facilities across the region.
Other semiconductor companies in Taiwan have begun doing the same. That includes Vanguard International, which has previously supplied processors for Apple EarPods.
The water issues in Taiwan come as there is already a worldwide shortage of key rare-earth materials used in processors exacerbating the chip supply globally. President Biden is planning to sign an executive order aimed at helping both domestic US production, and international supply chains.
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7 Comments
Umm...... was there regularly-expected typhoons before? Enough to plan on water delivery? I thought typhoons were to be avoided. Where are they trucking the water from? They are on an island, surrounded by rising seawater. Can't they pull enough water from the humidity in the air or use desalination?
Subtropical areas are in a zone where they depend on cyclones for much of their wet season rain. Not close enough to the tropics for regular convective rain, too close to the tropics for the higher latitude fronts. In Taiwan’s case it is an island away from continental influences. So more so.
Northern Australia is the same. It is the big storms that provide the big drinks for the woodland and grassland savannahs of the outback that may be all you get until the next wet season. Just not fun if you are on the coast in the path of these beasts, but oh, so necessary.
it is also why, particularly with growing populations, water storage needs to be regularly added to. But there have been very few water supply dams built in the last four decades, and when they are attempted, are plagued with endless lawfare and protests. So when the storms don’t come everyone acts surprised when water supply tightens months later.