Reporter Luo Yiqi of this newspaper reported in Shenzhen
When consumers are looking forward to Apple's latest products, a sudden incident by upstream wafer manufacturer Taiwan Jietu Circuit Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as TSMC) may affect the product's launch process.
html On the evening of August 3, Taiwanese media revealed that TSMC was suddenly infected with a computer virus. It is said that the infected factories include machines in major fab factories such as Bamboo Fab12, Zhongke Fab15, and Nanke Fab14. On the 5th, TSMC issued an announcement stating that the scope of infection has been controlled. htmlOn the afternoon of August 6, TSMC held a press conference. President Wei Zhejia attended and repeatedly emphasized that according to internal verification, the virus attack was not targeted by insiders or external hackers. It was just a human error in the process of installing software in the new machine, and the virus penetration rate was very fast due to networking between factories.Wei Zhejia said that as of the 6th, all TSMC's machines have resumed production, and it is expected to catch up with all the lost production progress in the fourth quarter of this year, so the outlook for the full-year performance is expected to remain unchanged.
An industry insider analyzed to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, "Obviously, TSMC provides the most advanced process. Once there is a problem with the supply, all customers may be affected. In my experience, 2-3 days of shutdown in three factories will cause significant losses. Under normal circumstances, water and power outages will be tolerated for up to 24 hours. The details of the losses of 2-3 days cannot be evaluated, but the losses will inevitably be large."
According to TSMC's previous outlook, the net operating income in the third quarter of this year is expected to be US$8.45-8.55 billion, and the operating gross profit margin is 48%-50%. If calculated based on the impact of gross profit margin does not exceed 2%, TSMC's revenue in the third quarter will drop by about US$169-171 million. The impact of
revenue is mainly due to the cost
html As soon as the press conference on the afternoon of August 6th, Wei Zhejia announced the company's relevant inspection progress. It is said that TSMC was infected with the virus this time, and the new machine made an operation error during the installation of the software. On August 3, during the installation of the new machine, TSMC did not quarantine and ensure that the computer was free of virus infection before connecting to the network, resulting in human errors that caused the computer with the virus to directly enter the company's network. Althoughdid not disclose the specific product lines, products and related customers affected, it did not explain which factory was the first to be infected with the virus. But Wei Zhejia admitted that the infection was the major factories of Zhuke, Zhongke and Nanke, and explained, "Our production system is all connected, which is TSMC's strengths. The mutual connection between wafer fabs allows us to have higher efficiency. So once we suffer from the virus, we will directly infected the factory areas in the north, central and southern regions."
Regarding this incident, Wei Zhejia said, "The virus is much more complex than we imagined and spreads quickly. The more advanced the factory, the higher the automation level, the more complex the system, so the impact will be greater." At this point, he once again emphasized that TSMC is very sure that it will rush back the fallen progress in the fourth quarter, which will not affect the annual performance. "We will try our best to minimize the impact on customers."
learns from this, and TSMC said that it will add a protective measure in virus prevention.
According to reports, during the installation of the new machine, TSMC had staff manually checked the computer for viruses. After that, they would set up another level based on manual operations, which is called "anti-ignorance measures." That is, it is set in the system that if the virus is not prevented and filtered by the machine, the new machine will not be connected to the network. "We found that humans cannot never make mistakes. This new mechanism will be launched soon. In the future, the system will automatically detect it, and try to eliminate the influence of human factors." Wei Zhejia said.
At the same time, TSMC will also set up a firewall mechanism between each factory area.
TSMC found that the virus infected this time was a variant of "WannaCry", and the direct impact was that the infected computer was down or repeatedly turned on. However, the company repeatedly stated that it has ensured that the production and manufacturing database and customer information have not been affected by the virus.Wei Zhejia explained that after the virus infection incident, TSMC will immediately shut down the affected computer and automatic handling system and install the correction software at full speed.
Due to the previous rampant process of the "WannaCry" virus, it was accompanied by blackmail. In the face of reporters' inquiries, Wei Zhejia explained, "The virus spreads very quickly, and fortunately it does not have the ability to encrypt."
company has stated in an announcement on the 5th that as of 2 pm Taiwan time, about 80% of the company's affected machines have returned to normal. At the press conference on the 6th, Wei Zhejia also said that the company was very cautious in the verification of the virus. In fact, TSMC was ready to resume production on the 5th, but in order to avoid haste, it will not be until the 6th to fully resume production.
However, the recovery process is not that easy. According to reports, the more precise the wafer manufacturing process, the slower the recovery progress will be. Although the management did not disclose the specific number of wafer scrapping affected by the invasion, we can also get a glimpse of the financial impact announced by the company.
It is expected that this incident will cause delays in wafer shipments in the third quarter. Unlike the previous estimate of 3%, the company believes that the impact on third-quarter revenue will not exceed 2%, and will also lead to a decrease of 1 percentage point in gross profit in the third quarter.
According to TSMC's financial director He Limei, a large part of the company's estimated revenue changes in the third quarter come from increased costs, including scrapped wafers, and the increase in raw material use than expected. "There will be an impact on profits this year, but we hope that through hard work, we can try to reduce (this impact) through various methods in the future."
In addition, the company has increased its investment in financial security, but compared with the cost of wafer production and manufacturing, the management said that this is only a small part.
short-term impact on wafer delivery process
TSMC's incident of virus attack and the affected production lines are repeatedly mentioned by on-site media because the affected factories are factories that mainly produce 12 wafer production lines and 7-nanometer process processes, carrying the links that are dependent on for more advanced electronic products.
This includes Apple. Previous media reports said that TSMC is expected to exclusively win the order for Apple's A12 chip through a 7-nanometer process. It is reported that TSMC is trying to increase the chip production capacity of 7 nanometers to meet the order needs of the new generation of iPhone models in 2018, and it is not even ruled out that it will intervene in the production process of MacBook processors.
Lin Jianhong, research manager of Tycoon Consulting Tuopu Industrial Research Institute, analyzed to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that in terms of global 12-inch wafer shipments, TSMC's 12-inch wafer shipments account for 21%. Judging from the number of pieces shipped, it seems that the impact is not big. But on the other hand, from the perspective of foundry revenue, TSMC accounts for 56% of the global foundry revenue. In 2017, TSMC accounted for about 70% of the global wafer foundry advanced process revenue.
Lin Jianhong further explained that the 12-inch wafer is mainly aimed at the mobile phone industry. Among them, Apple and Huawei mainly place orders for TSMC; in addition, in terms of high-performance budgets, the wafers of NVIDIA and Xilinx are mainly produced at TSMC.
The aforementioned industry insider also told reporters, "TSMC's business is relatively complicated, from the core chips in mobile phones to various consumer electronic chips such as computers, they are basically covered." He then introduced that because TSMC has relatively advanced processes, other manufacturers do not yet have such supply capabilities, so once they encounter a short-term suspension of production, the impact will be significant. "TSMC still has strong IT capabilities. I think it is an unexpected and relatively large loss for them." In
In its 2017 financial report, TSMC stated that the company is already the world's largest professional integrated circuit manufacturing service company. The share in the professional integrated circuit manufacturing service field has reached 56%.
In 2017, TSMC and its subsidiaries owned and managed 12-inch wafer production capacity exceeded 11 million pieces. Among the sales volume of 12-inch wafers, the sales amount of 28-nanometer wafers was about 58%. It is estimated that the production of 12-inch wafers in 2018 will be about 12-13 million pieces, with an annual growth rate of 9%. It is expected that the sales amount of 28-nanometer wafers will reach 60%-70%.
Wei Zhejia said, "But fortunately, the customer has shown an understanding of the company's situation."
He introduced that in addition to dealing with the virus in a timely manner as soon as possible, TSMC has also communicated with all customers, including adjustments to wafer delivery time. In response to the reporter's inquiry, he said, "The customer has not made any request for liquidated damages. The customers I have come into contact with are quite satisfied with our response measures."
He continued that several customers even told him, "We believe in TSMC!"
From the perspective of industry performance, Lin Jianhong told reporters that the current global monthly production capacity of 12-inch wafer shipments is about 5.9 million pieces, slightly higher than the estimated output of 12-inch wafer factories. However, considering the actual experimental film projection and yield loss, it will increase the factory's demand for wafers. At present, the global supply and demand situation of 12-inch wafers is still tight.
