🔴Tuesday April 6th 2021
🔵2021年4月6日星期二
🔱Espresso - Today’s agenda
每日濃縮 - 今日頭條
💧🏭💧Parched plants: Taiwan’s drought and the semiconductor industry
乾旱的大地：台灣的旱災及其半導體產業
The elements have plagued semiconductor manufacturing this year, exacerbating an already-existing shortage of the all-important silicon chips. A freak winter storm in February temporarily shut down Texas, America’s biggest chipmaking area. A fire in a Japanese factory last month squelched supply from a semiconductor manufacturer popular with carmakers. Now Taiwan is suffering a drought—bad news for the water-intensive chip industry. To help maintain reserves, the government today cuts water supplies by 15% (compared with normal supply) to industrial parks in Taichung, whose most notable occupant is TSMC, which alone takes in over half of worldwide semiconductor manufacturing revenue. TSMC insists it has enough water stored to run uninterrupted for now, a relief for a global economy that has increasingly relied on the firm to supply the processors that power modern electronics. But the cushion is worryingly thin: Taiwan has said it has enough water reserves to keep its tech sector running smoothly until late May.
種種生產要素 (的失靈) 困擾著今年半導體的製造，而這加劇了無比重要的矽晶片原本就已經短缺的狀況。(今年) 二月份一場反常的冬季風暴瞬間造成德州 (美國最大的晶片生產區) 停擺，而上個月日本一家深受汽車製造商喜愛的車用半導體大廠失火亦抑制了 (晶片的) 供應。而台灣現在更面臨著乾旱危機，這對耗水量大的晶片業者來說無疑是個壞消息。為了協助維持儲水，台灣政府在今天減供了台中工業區 (較於正常供應的) 15%的用水，而該工業區最主要的用水戶是單單就佔了全球半導體營收一半以上的台積電。台積電堅稱其目前已有足夠的儲水以持續 (運作/生產)、並不受干擾。這讓越來越依賴這家公司提供驅動現代電子產品的處理器之全球經濟鬆了口氣。但令人擔憂的是，這樣的緩衝仍然薄弱：台灣已表示，目前的儲水只能維持科技大廠直到 (今年) 五月下旬前的平穩運作。
⚜️Daily takeaway⚜️
每日單字精選
✅Semiconductor (n.): 半導體 (名)
✅Exacerbate (v.): 加劇、惡化 (動)
✅Shortage (n.): 短缺 (名)
✅Temporarily (adv.): 暫時地、臨時地 (副)
✅Drought (n.): 乾旱、旱災 (名)
✅Industrial park (n.): 工業園區 (名)
✅Increasingly (adv.): 日益地 (副)
✅Rely on (v.): 依靠、依賴 (動)
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