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TAP TIMES -35- FEBRUARY 2022

Taiwan earthquake (from 33) X’ian lockdown update:
Company will adjust manpower
could affect DRAM buyers’ behavior at any
time. X’IAN, China — Currently, the con-

sequences of Samsung’s Xi’an’s
How contract prices will actually end up is lockdown is weighted most heav-
something that requires further observa- ily towards the difficulty of schedul-
tion. As for DRAM spot trading, the memo- ing shifts for personnel, according to
ry spot market of Mainland China was still TrendForce’s investigations.
in midst of the year-end holiday on Janu-
ary 3.

Passive trading
Hence, spot traders were passive for the
most part. TrendForce will continue moni-
toring the spot market to see if the earth-
quake is going to be a positive driver go-
ing forward.

Turning to the current state of the foundry
market, the chip demand related to some Samsung’s Xi’an facility has been under lockdown. (Samsung)
categories of end products has slowed
down a bit recently because of seasonality. Limited manpower
Due to restrictions on movement and
Demand remains strong other lockdown measures, Samsung must
Demand, however, remains quite strong continue operations with limited manpow-
for chips that were previously in short sup- er.
ply, such as PMIC, Wi-Fi SoC, etc. Foundry
fabs on the whole are still operating with Samsung is currently making active ad-
a fully loaded capacity because demand justments to reduce impact on output and
continues to outstrip supply. the local government expects a return to
normalcy within one to two weeks.
The fabs of Taiwan-based foundries, in-
cluding TSMC, UMC, PSMC, and Vanguard, However, if the pandemic is not properly
are concentrated in Hsinchu, Taichung, controlled, short-term impact on the pro-
and Tainan. duction utilization rate of the local factory
campus cannot be ruled out, resulting in a
In those places, an earthquake intensity slight decline in output.
scale of 3 or under was recorded. As such,
no foundry fab in Taiwan has halted op- As for raw materials required for produc-
eration because of the earthquake, and tion such as water and power, supply
all fabs are operating normally at the mo- seems to remain sufficient, though Sam-
ment. trendforce.com sung is still confirming the specific degree
of any impact. next page

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