The earthquake, of magnitude 6.4 on the Richter scale occurred in south Taiwan. No deaths have been reported but 64 people were injured reportedly and the quake has disrupted operations at a number of the island's technology-based companies.

The earthquake registered on instruments at TSMC's Tainan site in the south of Taiwan at magnitude 5, and was measured at TSMC's Hsinchu site in the north at magnitude 2.

"Current assessments reports show that the earthquake had minimal impact on Hsinchu fabs. While Tainan fabs suffered greater impact, they have gradually begun to resume production. Our initial estimate is that the earthquake caused the equivalent of 1.5 days loss of wafer movement for the company in total," TSMC said on its website.

UMC said: "The earthquake recorded on March 4th, 2010 did not impact the company's Hsinchu fabs and office areas. Buildings, facilities and equipment in Fab12A in Southern Taiwan Science Park were also unaffected, although some production lines in Fab12A were halted due to the shutdown of certain equipment. UMC conducted maintenance and examination immediately following the incident. The estimated production days affected on the company in total will be approximately 1 to 1.5 days."

UMC added that it would be adjusting manufacturing upward at Fab12i in Singapore and close any production gap once Fab12A resumes full production in order to minimize the 1 to 1.5 days accumulated production impact.

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), world's largest IC-packaging house, AU Optronics (LCD) and Nanya Technology Corp. (DRAM maker) said the quake had no significant impact on the respective comapanies' operations. Similarly Hong Hai Precision Co. Ltd. (Foxconn), world's largest contract manufacturer said the quake had not impact.

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