According to recent reports, Hurricane Helene’s devastation has severely disrupted the semiconductor industry after the “purest” quartz mining town was destroyed by the natural disaster. Spruce Pine, a small North Carolina community tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains, was decimated by the hurricane’s impacts, which tore through much of the Southeast.
Reportedly, the “purest form” of quartz, a crucial raw material in the semiconductor industry, is mined in Spruce Pine. However, the storm has left the town of just under 3,000 people without electricity or running water over the last week. As a result, the global semiconductor industry could face a significant disruption.
Sibelco, a materials company with operations in Spruce Pine, released a statement about the hurricane’s impact. “Hurricane Helene has significantly impacted North Carolina, USA, and the Spruce Pine community has been hit particularly hard. The hurricane has caused widespread flooding, power outages, communication disruptions, and damage to critical infrastructure in the area. Many people in the area, including our employees and their families, are facing displacement and significant disruptions,” the statement read.
It continued, “We have confirmed the safety of most employees and are working diligently to contact those still unreachable due to ongoing power outages and communication challenges,” the company continued. “As of September 26th, we have temporarily halted operations at the Spruce Pine facilities in response to these challenges.”
Similarly, the Quartz Corp released a statement announcing that its facilities had also suspended operations. “Hurricane Helene has severely hit our Spruce Pine community which is currently facing multiple challenges from flooding, and power and communication outages. It is a dramatic situation for the region,” the statement read.
Quartz Corp continued, “Our focus is to ensure that our employees and their families are safe. It is with an immense relieve that we now have been able to make contact with all employees, In addition to this, our teams are joining the local taskforces to try to restore the most basic services and bring further supplies to Spruce Pine.”
The material company added, “Operations at our facilities were stopped on September 26th in preparation of the event and we have no visibility on when they will restart. This is second order of priority. Our top priority remains the health and safety of our employees and their families.”
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However, the company maintained that it is most concerned about the well-being of its employees in the area. “This is second order of priority. Our top priority remains the health and safety of our employees and their families,” company officials said, confirming that they have successfully contacted all Spruce Pine employees.
As experts have highlighted how the natural disaster could impact the global supply chain of quartz, some commentators have pointed out this could force industry players to look to China. “For semiconductors, China has the second-highest share of sales in the world. When supply chains in the United States are disrupted, at best, the market turns to the Chinese,” the Blaze’s Andrew Chapados worote. “If that option is not available, competitors in Europe may be able to pick up the slack, but at nowhere near as low a price.”
Watch Biden snap at a reporter for asking a question about Hurricane Helene below:
Featured image credit: Bill McMannis, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Devastation_in_Asheville_after_Hurricane_Helene.jpg