AKM provides an update on its fire damaged fab
In late October last year a fire broke out at Asahi Kasei Microdevices' (AKM) semiconductor factory in Nobeoka, Miyazaki prefecture. The fire completely ravished the fab and took a total of three days to completely extinguish. But how does the company fare today?
The fire completely shut down production at the fab – which manufactures large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs) for audio equipment – which understandably created challenges for manufacturers of audio recording products.
During the fire part of the building structure collapsed as it spread across the factory. Once the fire had been fully extinguished it became clear that the fifth floor had been severely damaged, which included a collapsed ceiling. All of this meant that any kind of construction would have to be carried out with great caution and consideration of potential impact to other areas.
The company issued an update back in April of 2021 saying that the cause of the fire was still under investigation but that it would start removing debris from the fifth floor in mid-April.
Asahi Kasei Microdevices said in the update that it had started to promote alternative production of some products with the help of multiple unnamed semiconductor manufacturers in order to keep up a stable supply.
Over a year has passed since the fire broke out, so Evertiq reached out to AKM for an update on the investigation into the cause of the fire as well as the progress of the clean up of the site.
“Debris removal caused by the fire has been conducted strenuously and some of the products manufactured in the factory have already started to be manufactured in our manufacturing consignees,” Taro Sekizuka, General Manager – Media Relations Department, told Evertiq in an emailed statement.
The company did not respond to our question on how it has solved the loss of production capacity, nor when we will see a return to production at the facility.
