Samsung Electronics' semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas, was temporarily suspended because of power supply difficulties caused by Blizzard. It is reported that the city's power company asked Samsung to stop work on the afternoon of February 16, but the exact time to resume work is still unknown.
Samsung has US customers such as Intel at its plant in Austin and is considering investing 1.7 billion dollars in plant expansion to cope with growing demand from US customers. Meanwhile, Samsung's rival TSMC is investing $12 billion in a chip manufacturing plant in Arizona.
Samsung said in a statement, "at the request of Austin Energy, the Samsung Austin semiconductor plant gradually ceased operation at around 1 p.m. on February 16 due to a power outage in Texas. Because it has been notified in advance, appropriate measures have been taken for the factory and the wafers in production. We are currently discussing with the authorities when to resume work. "
Analysts say the shutdown at Samsung's Austin chip plant could exacerbate global chip shortages in the short term. However, most of the world's semiconductor capacity is concentrated in Asia, with 70 per cent of global production coming from Taiwan and about 10 per cent from Samsung. However, given that Samsung's capacity is mainly distributed in South Korea, the impact of the Austin plant shutdown should be limited.
A Samsung spokesman also said that the Austin plant has only one foundry production line and there may be losses during the shutdown, but given the plant's capacity, the shutdown is unlikely to affect the entire market and product prices. "
Last month, Samsung said Intel's plan to outsource more production would increase overall demand for chip contract manufacturing services, but declined to say whether it had won orders from Intel. Samsung said again that it was considering expanding its plants, possibly in Huacheng, South Korea, Pyeongtaek and Austin in the United States, but no decision has been made yet.
The main users of Samsung logic chip (logic chip) are Samsung itself, Qualcomm and Nvidia. In addition, the company helps Tesla produce HW 3.0 chips for electric vehicles.
Samsung's Austin chip plant opened in 2017, using Samsung's 14nm, 28nm and 32nm chip production technology. The Austin plant is Samsung's largest logic chip production plant outside South Korea. In addition, the company also has a NAND flash chip factory in Austin.
In addition to Samsung, NXP and Infineon have also been asked to suspend operations. Earlier, the Austin government contacted factories in the area, initially asking only to save electricity and finally suspending operations.
