Taipei, Aug. 16 (CNA) Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), the world's largest integrated circuit packaging and testing services provider, said Wednesday that a sudden massive power outage in Taiwan the previous day had caused it to lose about US$800,000.

ASE said two of its plants in Kaohsiung were shut down for about an hour during the blackout, which resulted in estimated losses of between US$500,000 and US$800,000.

In a statement, ASE said the figures were a preliminary estimate and it was still trying to determine the full extent of the damage.

The company did not give losses in Taiwan dollar terms as it is listed both on Wall Street and on the Taiwan market.

The blackout at 4:51 p.m. was caused by a shutdown of all six generators at the gas powered Tatan Power Plant in Taoyuan when a contract worker inadvertently shut off a gas supply valve for two minutes, according to Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower).

More than 6.68 million households in 17 cities and counties around Taiwan lost power, and Taipower instituted rotational power rationing measures until 9:40 p.m. when the problem at the Taoyuan plant was fixed and the power supply was fully restored.

ASE said that although it suffered losses, its day to day operations were not affected.

Among other manufacturers affected by the outage, ChipMos Technologies Inc. (南茂), a smaller IC packaging and testing firm, said operations at its plant in Tainan were suspended for about one hour. ChipMos has not given any estimates of its losses but said in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its operations remained normal.

After the news of the power outage's impact on tech manufacturers surfaced Wednesday morning, ASE shares fell 1.20 percent on the local stock market to close at NT$37.15 (US$1.23), while ChipMos dropped 1.15 percent to end at NT$25.75.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said 151 companies in industrial parks and export processing zones under its supervision had reported about NT$87.47 million in losses caused by Tuesday's blackout.

The ministry said 68 of those firms incurred losses of 37.64 million due to the power outage, while 15 companies in industrial parks in central Taiwan suffered NT$10.71 million in losses, and 36 manufacturers in industrial parks in southern Taiwan reported NT$25.12 million in losses.

In its three export processing zones, MOEA said, 32 companies, excluding ASE, incurred a total NT$14 million in losses due to the blackout.

On Wednesday, Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) apologized twice to the public for the power outage and tendered his resignation, which was accepted by Premier Lin Chuan. 

(By Jalen Chung and Liao Yu-yang)
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