Major Earthquake Rattles Taiwan
The South East Asian country’s worst such disaster in 25 years has got its electronics sector and neighbouring nations worried.
Amid ongoing threats of military action by China on the sovereign island of Taiwan, it looks like natural disaster has struck first. Yes, the Richter Scale came in for quite a shake-up, measuring 7.5 as several buildings toppled or suffered structural damage with accompanying destruction to life and property. The quake which occurred a few minutes before midnight on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, reportedly struck at a location 35 km south of the industrial city of Hualien.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is credited for locating the epicentre of the earthquake, while the Japanese Meteorological Agency reported the magnitude of the calamity – the worst such in Taiwan since 1999. While rescue operations got underway and authorities were taking stock of the damage and the casualties, neighbouring Japan and the Philippines issued tsunami alerts, evacuation plans and advisories.
However, with the aqueous danger apparently subsiding, both the countries have downgraded the warnings and have called off any emergency action. This after it was initially predicted that Japan’s Miyakojima Island would face tsunami waves as high as 10 feet. Meanwhile, Filipino provinces of Batanes, Cagayan, Llocos Norte and Isabela were also in the line of fire... or water, rather.
However, there has already been a commercial ripple effect by the quake: laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices are expected to see a sharp price rise. This is because the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and its rival United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) have evacuated large sections of their factories. How’s that for an economic shape-up!
