TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. (TAIEX:2311) (NYSE:ASX) announced today that the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch has cleared the company and its five employees of all charges related to the Violation of the Waste Disposal Act.
In the press release issued by the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung branch today, the court has noted that on October 1, 2013 1000hrs, when an abnormal overflow of hydrochloric acid occurred, ASE had tried to neutralize the discharge by increasing the amount of caustic added to the effluent. By 2000hrs of the same day, the pH value of the effluent discharge had gradually returned to normalcy. The court was of the opinion that the October 1, 2013 discharge of wastewater over regulatory effluent limits was not a deliberate act but was a result of the lack of a well-equipped internal procedure to handle contingencies such as the hydrochloric acid overflow.
Since the incident, ASE has taken this opportunity to further strengthen its internal infrastructures and policies in the management of environmental issues including wastewater discharge processes. In April 2015, ASE began operating Taiwan’s largest state of the art wastewater processing and recycling facility at the Nantze Export Processing Zone in Kaohsiung. In its first phase, the facility is capable of processing 20,000 tons of wastewater per day and recycling 10,000 tons per day. The second phase is expected to be completed by 2017 whereby it aims to process 40,000 tons of wastewater per day and recycle almost 20,000 tons per day.
ASE is sincerely grateful that the company and its employees have been vindicated from all charges. The company continues to commit to corporate sustainability and focus its efforts in building a socially responsible entity in the countries and communities it operates in.
About the ASE Group
The ASE Group is the world's largest provider of independent semiconductor manufacturing services in assembly, test, materials and design manufacturing. As a global leader geared towards meeting the industry’s ever growing needs for faster, smaller and higher performance chips, the Group develops and offers a wide portfolio of technology and solutions including IC test program design, front-end engineering test, wafer probe, wafer bump, substrate design and supply, wafer level package, flip chip, system-in-package, final test and electronic manufacturing services through Universal Scientific Industrial Co Ltd, a member of the ASE Group. The Group generated sales revenues of US$8.5 billion in 2014 and employs over 68,000 people worldwide. For more information about the ASE Group, visit www.aseglobal.com.
