Fire may force memory prices up

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), one of the world’s top IC packaging companies, reported a serious fire at its IC substrate plant in Chungli, Taoyuan County, yesterday.

In addition to the costs of the damage from the fire, the company will incur monthly losses of about NT$600 million due to lost capacity, sources indicated. ASE may also need to compensate its customers for millions of unfinished IC substrates at the plant, and those same clients may begin shifting orders to ASE’s competitors as the company rebuilds its business, the sources added. According to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, the total cost of the fire may end up exceeding NT$10 billion.

ASE said it is still evaluating the extent of damage and declined to comment on the extent of the damage or reveal the list of clients affected.

Currently, the supply of PBGA and CSP substrate packaging lags demand by 15-20 million units per month and quotes rose 10-20% last quarter, according to IC substrate companies. With the ASE Chungli plant packaging 20-40 million PBGA and CSP substrate per month, the fire may result in the industry seeing a short-term PBGA and CSP supply shortage of more than 35 million units

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