Our company maintains over 43,000 elevators under contract. Due to the 403 earthquake, there were reported malfunctions from as many as 3,262 elevators. Among these, 87%, totaling 2,836 elevators, had resumed operation by the afternoon of the following day, April 4th. However, the remaining 426 elevators suffered varying degrees of damage due to the swaying of the buildings during the earthquake. These damages include entangled or severed cables, broken strand of rope, dislodged pulleys, fractured pulleys, derailing of counterweight frames, deformation, and even distortion of track brackets. As of yesterday, April 9th, only 230 elevators have been repaired, leaving 196 still awaiting repairs.

Although GFC maintains approximately 200 million NTD worth of maintenance spare parts across its branches and Taoyuan parts center to cope with the normal maintenance of the latest models as well as those over 40 or 50 years old, these inventories are still insufficient to meet the specific component demands arising from earthquakes like 403 or 921. Such demands include floor detection boards, switches, and wire ropes of different diameters. Therefore, besides reallocating newly produced elevator components, upstream suppliers are urgently requested to produce new products for supply.

Furthermore, GFC's maintenance workforce, apart from their routine tasks of maintaining contract elevators, repairing and replacing parts, and responding to general malfunctions, is currently stretched thin and unable to handle the rare disaster like the 403 earthquake which occurs once 25 years. Currently, installation and outsourcing personnel are being redeployed to support the replacement of damaged components using heavy machinery. Apart from the pending processing of parts by upstream manufacturers, the number of elevators awaiting repair is expected to drop to less 10 by the end of this weekend.

During this period of declining birth rates and severe labor shortages in the construction industry, our company's employees still empathize with users experiencing the inconvenience of living in tall buildings without elevators. They are working tirelessly, enduring the hardships of climbing stairs themselves, to expedite the restoration of normal life for the public. If tasks cannot be completed within the specified deadlines or if there are delays in fault rescues, we seek your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

GFC, LTD.
(4506)

News Link: https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/4636749