chip Photo:VCG

The impact of the recent COVID-19 outbreak in an industrial park in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, a main chip production base, has been minimal, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday, in response to concerns over potential disruptions to supply chains.

The ministry will closely follow the development of the epidemic situation in Suzhou, and help enterprises solve practical difficulties related to logistics, disinfection and testing, in addition to encouraging the resumption of work and production as long as the epidemic remains under control, Gao Feng, the MOFCOM spokesperson, said at a press briefing.

Meanwhile, some chip firms inside the industrial park have resumed production after suspensions. Hejian Chip Manufacturing (Suzhou) Co, a semiconductor supplier in Suzhou, was among the first to resume production on Thursday, after business activities were suspended for 10 days during the recent COVID-19 outbreak in the city.

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) announced that the 8-inch wafer fab of its subsidiary Hejian Chip Manufacturing (Suzhou) Co received a notice from local authorities on Thursday to resume production. 

Business activities in the plant had been halted since February 14 after one of its employees was infected with COVID-19, which prompted the plant to suspend production to carry out mass testing for all staff, UMC said in its official WeChat account.

All other employees of Hejian have been tested negative in the nucleic acid testing and the plant's compliance to local epidemic prevention policies has no significant financial and business impact, UMC noted.

Hejian Chip Manufacturing (Suzhou) Co is an 8-inch foundry company located in Suzhou Industrial Park, which accounted for 6.5 percent of China's foreign trade in 2021 and is home to many multinationals.

The company mainly provides original equipment manufacturer (OEM) products to automobile and industrial electronics industries, including LCD drives, microprocessors, power management and fingerprint identification.

Suzhou reported three new confirmed COVID-19 cases and five asymptomatic COVID-19 cases on Thursday. As of 12 am on Thursday, 106 confirmed cases and 30 asymptomatic cases had been reported in Suzhou, all of which have been treated and quarantined in designated medical facilities.

Global Times