The blizzard in Texas in the United States caused widespread power outages, and Samsung's chip factory in Austin has been forced to suspend operations for more than two weeks. Although there will be no major changes in supply in the short term, a long-term shutdown of the factory may have a negative impact on its and Apple's smartphone production.

According to THE ELEC report, the Austin chip factory has a monthly capacity of 20,000 wafers. It mainly produces chips for Samsung’s flagship smartphones sold in the Americas. It also manufactures display driver ICs for Apple’s iPhone’s OLED panels.

It is reported that Samsung usually reserves one and a half months of parts inventory, so the short-term shutdown of the factory will not have a major impact. However, if the factory restart takes too long, it may affect the production of smart phones.

According to people familiar with the matter, it may take about two months for the plant to resume normal production. This means that Samsung must resume normalization of production before mid-April so that it will not affect the production of smartphones.

According to sources within the Samsung smartphone supply chain, according to Samsung’s orders, the shipment of Samsung’s Galaxy S21 series of mobile phones is expected to reach about 30 million units, which is 15% higher than the previous generation Galaxy S20. However, if the operating time of the Austin chip factory is delayed, the output of the Galaxy S21 series may drop to 20 million units.

According to reports, Samsung's foundry business may convert other production lines to produce chips for the S21 series. But the current global chip shortage, the South Korean company is busy with orders on hand.