The massive blackout caused by the record cold wave that struck Texas in the US is hitting the domestic industry.
According to industry sources on the 19th, Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor foundry plant located in Austin, Texas, has been shut down for the fourth day.
Earlier, the city of Austin informed semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics, NXP, and Infineon about the suspension of power supply as the power shortage caused by the cold wave became serious.
For this reason, Samsung Electronics has also stopped operating its semiconductor plant from the 16th (local time) and is closely monitoring the situation.
The Samsung side said, “The damage was not significant because it was notified in advance that the electricity supply would be stopped due to the power shortage problem. We have not yet been notified when the power supply will resume.”
When an unexpected power outage occurs, semiconductor factories have to discard all wafers in production, resulting in a snowball-like damage.
In the case of the Austin plant, there is little loss in case of a power supply interruption in advance.
Samsung Electronics is currently dispatching domestic technical personnel to the United States in preparation for restarting operation after shutting down the Austin plant.
Lotte Chemical’s ethane cracker (ECC) and ethylene glycol (EG) plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA, also shut down its power supply on the 16th (local time) and the plant was shut down.
The company plans to normalize the operation of the plant by this week, but it is difficult to guarantee that it is entirely dependent on the local power supply situation.
The impact of the US cold wave is reaching neighboring Mexico.
Kia Motors’ factory located in Pesqueria, Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico, stopped working at night on the 17th (local time).
Mexico relies on natural gas for 60% of its electricity generation, and more than 70% of its natural gas consumption is imported from the United States.
However, due to the cold wave in the United States, electricity consumption has soared, which has led to a decline in gas exports from the United States, causing problems in Mexico’s natural gas supply and demand.
Kia said, “We will suspend the operation of the plant until the 19th and resume it next week,” but said, “We must watch the status of natural gas supply and demand.”
Previously, LG Electronics’ Reynosa TV production line and Monterrey refrigerator/oven production line in northeastern Mexico were also shut down for two days on the 15th to 16th (local time) due to a power outage in the region.
LG Electronics has resumed some operations from the afternoon of the 17th, but it has not been able to normalize all operations due to power problems.
LG Electronics also stopped production on the 16th (local time) on the 16th (local time) due to power supply problems in the Tennessee washing machine production line and the Huntsville solar module production line.
However, Samsung Electronics’ home appliance production lines in the US and Mexico are in normal operation until now.
The washing machine plant in South Carolina, USA, is one of the three states in the United States that are less affected by cold waves.
Samsung said that the Kerataro home appliance plant and Tijuana TV plant in Mexico are also operating normally.
/yunhap news