This weekend, AKM’s semiconductor factory was completely burned down in a three-day inferno.
The big fire at AKM (which stands for Asahi Kasei Microdevices by the way) broke out on Tuesday 20 October in the semiconductor factory in Nobeoka City, Japan. Eventually, another fire spread to the fifth floor of the factory, causing parts of the roof and walls to collapse. 400 workers were evacuated in time and no one was injured. The fire was not extinguished until midnight on October 23rd. AKM’s production is – of course – completely at a standstill. Resuming it will take at least six months to a year.
Consequences
A large proportion of high-end manufacturers depend on AKM DAC chips for their products. What the consequences for them are in these already difficult times is difficult to predict. This is of course very dependent on stocks that have been built up, locally or at middlemen. So we will have to wait and see how this sad story develops. PSAudio, among others, reported the fire. On the site of AKM there is currently nothing to be found about the fire, nor its possible consequences.