Two dead after Panasonic CCL plant fire that may hit AI server supply
Two employees who had been missing since Wednesday’s fire at a Panasonic factory in Hsinchu County, Taiwan, have been confirmed dead, and five others were injured. The plant makes MEGTRON laminates for high-speed PCBs, and the fire could affect around 4% of global supply of high-end copper-clad laminate (CCL).
The deaths were confirmed on Thursday by the Hsinchu county government, according to Reuters. In a statement on Wednesday, Panasonic confirmed that an explosion had occurred at the facility, which belongs to Panasonic Industrial Devices Materials Taiwan, and said it is investigating the cause.
According to TrendForce, which cites the Taiwanese newspapers Economic Daily News and Commercial Times, the plant in Hukou is a key production site for Panasonic’s MEGTRON ultra-low-loss materials. MEGTRON is said to account for about 20% of the global market for high-end CCL, and the Hukou plant accounts for about 20% of MEGTRON’s capacity worldwide. Together, that corresponds to roughly 4% of global supply. The two newspapers disagree on what the plant mainly makes. Economic Daily News mentions the M6, M7 and M8 grades, while Commercial Times says production is mostly M6 and that M8 may still be in trial production.
The fire comes as supply is already tight. According to TrendForce, Nvidia and the large US cloud providers are increasing their orders at a time when lead times for CCL are long.
Last week, Panasonic Industry announced investments of about JPY 67 billion to expand MEGTRON capacity in Suzhou, China, and Ayutthaya, Thailand. In the release, Taiwan was named as one of five MEGTRON production sites, alongside Koriyama in Japan, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Ayutthaya.
