Minute-long blackout at Samsung semi plant could cost millions

Author: EIS Release Date: Mar 3, 2020


Samsung Electronics partly halted some semiconductor production at its Hwaseong chip complex in South Korea after about a minute-long blackout on Tuesday afternoon, the company announced on Wednesday.

Some DRAM and NAND flash chip production lines were stopped after electricity was cut due to a problem with a regional power transmission cable, and a full recovery is expected in about two to three days, Yonhap reported earlier on Tuesday, citing industry sources.blackout

Samsung is inspecting the production lines for a restart, and the extent of the losses is under investigation, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The blackout incident likely caused millions of dollars in losses, although there was no major damage.

A half-hour power outage at Samsung’s Pyeongtaek chip plant in 2018 resulted in estimated losses equivalent to roughly $43.32 million, according to Yonhap.

The incident could help curb the increase of Samsung Electronics’ large chip inventory, Yonhap said, citing an analyst.