Wednesday, February 17th 2021
Manufacturing: Samsung Semiconductor Fabs in Texas Shut Down Following State-wide Power Shortages
News just keep flowing that are bound to have impact on pricing for components users of this website know and love. The Austin-American Statesman reports that Samsung has been ordered to shutter its Texas factories in wake of recent power shortages that have impacted the state. The order, which came from Austin Energy, doesn't just affect Samsung: all industrial and semiconductor manufacturers in the state were ordered to idle or shut down their facilities, meaning that NXP Semiconductors and Infineon Semiconductors have also been affected. According to Austin Energy, all companies have complied with the order. A date for the lifting of these restrictions still hasn't been given.
As we know, semiconductor manufacturing is a drawn-out process, with some particular wafers taking several months in their journey from initial fabrication until they reach completion. This meas that it's a particularly sensitive business in regards to power outages or general service interruptions. The entire semiconductor manufacturing lines - and products therein, in various stages of production - can be rendered unusable due to these events, which will have a sizable impact in the final manufacturing output of a given factory. It remains to be seen the scale of this production impact, but a few percentage points difference in the overall global semiconductor manufacturing could have dire implications for availability and pricing, considering the already insufficient operational capacity in regards to demand. Considering the impact adverse temperatures are having on Texas residents, here's hoping for the quick resolution of these problems, which affect much more than just semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.
Sources:
Austin-American Statesman, via Tom's Hardware
As we know, semiconductor manufacturing is a drawn-out process, with some particular wafers taking several months in their journey from initial fabrication until they reach completion. This meas that it's a particularly sensitive business in regards to power outages or general service interruptions. The entire semiconductor manufacturing lines - and products therein, in various stages of production - can be rendered unusable due to these events, which will have a sizable impact in the final manufacturing output of a given factory. It remains to be seen the scale of this production impact, but a few percentage points difference in the overall global semiconductor manufacturing could have dire implications for availability and pricing, considering the already insufficient operational capacity in regards to demand. Considering the impact adverse temperatures are having on Texas residents, here's hoping for the quick resolution of these problems, which affect much more than just semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.
92 Comments on Manufacturing: Samsung Semiconductor Fabs in Texas Shut Down Following State-wide Power Shortages
I think you got lost on the way to one of Trump's tweets.
You know nothing other than your despise for a political party.
And whoever said it's because they couldn't drive to work to get to the control panel... people actually believe that.
I know someone living there and roads are absolutely closed.
Its no small secret that South Texas Nuclear Power Station is offline: along with its ~1GW of power production. Texas is just completely unprepared for the winter. I don't know why some pundits are trying to turn this into an abstract political issue. The story is actually quite simple.
Planting blame on a federal administration that doesn't own, nor operate ERCOT is incredibly funny though. The entire existence of ERCOT is to avoid federal regulation across any section of the grid, be that nuclear, gas, coal, or renewable. Texas makes their own bed, and now they get to sleep in it.
Power transmission grids seem to be underdeveloped and operating on their limits all too oftern, no matter where you go.
www.entsoe.eu/news/2021/01/26/system-separation-in-the-continental-europe-synchronous-area-on-8-january-2021-2nd-update/Cooling water installations in power plants froze too. Indeed, cooling water.
Allowing large manufacturers to draw off the grid without their own generating facilities.
Imagine if they were self sufficient in power, they could even sell back to the grid and make even more in tax breaks etc.
You know that we can look up how much power ERCOT is getting from Solar right now, right? Solar makes plenty of energy, even on cloudy days. (Solar of course makes more energy on sunny days)
Texas largely relies on natural gas for power. It wasn’t ready for the extreme cold. This is the headlines of an article I found from a Texan newspaper
www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/Officials for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of Texas’ grid, said the primary cause of the outages Tuesday appeared to be the state’s natural gas providers. Many are not designed to withstand such low temperatures on equipment or during production.
By some estimates, nearly half of the state’s natural gas production has screeched to a halt due to the extremely low temperatures, while freezing components at natural gas-fired power plants have forced some operators to shut down.
“Texas is a gas state,” said Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Stay safe everyone
jacobinmag.com/2021/02/texas-power-electricity-grid-weather-winter-storm
Not trying to get into a debate about economics or politics or whatever, but I felt that reframing the conversation in terms of profitability rather than fossils vs renewables is a helpful way to look at this problem.
(Gonna run to the liquor store now before I get trolled to death :eek: )
edit: please feel free to delete mods — not trying to start an argument as much as shift the debate :oops:
Sorry, I couldn't resist, lighten up y'all.
Your anecdotes are meaningless to the facts.
Above ground infrastructure belonging to Atmos Energy in Throckmorton, TX. This and other above ground infrastructure subject to winter events across the state are what we're talking about here.
A part of me also believes this is karma's way of bitch slapping Ted Cruz for the tweet he did last August mocking California due to the fact that the state was in the midst of a brutal heat wave at the time and as a result, the governor called for rolling blackouts to help ease the strain on the grid. We hadn't had to do rolling blackouts since 2001.
That aside, I truly feel for the folks having to suffer through this. :( <3
US seem to even struggling with the basics..not sure how they gonna keep up with the labour and pay while making cost effective products..
When Some fab in China stops Manufacturing for 30Mins due to some Fire or other natural Calamity,
It increase world wide prices by 5-10%.
lol thinking what would be the Case if its like this in the US.
thank God the manufacturing of 7/5nm process has not yet commenced by TSMC or Samsung in the US.
that would be mean prices increase by 50% for all Qualcomm/AMD/Nvidia chips...
Hope the US fix thier problems by 2023/2024 when real manfacturing starts in 5 and 3Nm