The promise by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc., the world’s largest assembly and test company, to adhere to environmental protection standards is at odds with its recent history.
The company’s K7 plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, has resumed operations after the Kaohsiung District Court on October 20 this year imposed a fine of NT$3 million (US$100,000) on ASE, and five company executives were put on probation for environmental violations. The company, which counts the world’s largest chipmakers as its customers, says it has been consistently committed to environmental protection.
“We’ve been pledging this for a long time,” ASE CFO Joseph Tung said in an October 31 interview with EE Times. “We’ve been doing this for a long time.”
The website of Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration tells a different story, however. The website shows that ASE broke environmental laws and paid fines 19 times during this year, after the wafer level operations of the K7 plant were shut down in December 2013 for wastewater violations.
Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, an environmental group based in Kaohsiung, calls ASE a “serial polluter” on its website. “The law in Taiwan doesn’t deter violators,” Citizen of the Earth division chief Tsai Hui-hsun told EE Times. “The law doesn’t require companies to pay for environmental damage.”
No government body or private company has made any attempt to evaluate the environmental damage to Houjing River, which is used to irrigate crops and provide water for aquaculture farms, according to Tsai.
ASE is among a number of other companies located along the river that are engaged in petrochemical and electroplating businesses. The penalty for ASE was light because it was difficult for court prosecutors to link ASE directly to pollution of the river, Tsai says.
“The court``s decision represents a blow to the people,” Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu was cited as saying in a report by the local China Post. Chen offered support should prosecutors want to appeal the case, according to the paper.