Impact Limited on TSMC Factories After Virus Attack; Could Delay Apple iPhone Shipments

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co) is the world's biggest contract manufacturer of chips for companies including Apple and Qualcomm Inc. All the same a estimator virus reportedly halted several TSMC factories final Friday.

The company has since and then investigated the attack, and analysts propose that the impairment could result in a delay of bit shipments for Apple Inc's new iPhones but the touch will exist limited every bit TSMC has prepared itself for such disruptions.

The company saida number of its fabrication tools had been infected, and while it had contained the problem and has resumed production in many units. What's more is that the company said the virus wasn't introduced by a hacker. TSMC had further stated over the weekend that they are working on solutions now but said that the degree of infection varied from factory to factory.

According to analysts,Apple tree was 1 of the impacted customers but a swift recovery in the quaternary quarter should proceed the touch on minimal.

"Long-term, TSMC'south trustworthy image is somewhat tainted but it is hard to quantify the effect now," said Marking Li, an annotator at Sanford C. Bernstein. Apart from that, KGI Securities said that while some of TSMC's 12-inch wafer shipments volition be delayed, the bear upon to the upcoming iPhone launch is limited because "the upstream supply chain usually prepares for these incidents and articles surplus chipsets during the initial ramp-up stage".

Despite analysts suggesting that the damage wasn't catastrophic, it has indeed tainted TSMC's reputation. As of 0124 GMT, TSMC shares were down 1 percent at T$245.0, compared with a 0.02 percentage autumn for the benchmark index.