A factory of Mitsubishi Material, a Japanese polysilicon manufacturer, exploded on January 9th. Five workers were killed and 12 were injured, the factory was shut down immediately and has started investigating the cause.
According to Mitsubishi’s announcement, the explosion occured when some workers were repairing a heat exchanger that led to chemical material emission. The workers were trying to disassemble the heat exchanger to have the machine cleaned before it exploded. The heat exchanger was destroyed but there were no other damages in the factory and none of the production process stopped completely.
Mitsubishi Material is one of the most important manufacturers of semiconductor, polysilicon, PV cells and automotive components. Factories are partially shut down so buyers such as SUMCO would turn to other manufacturers for materials to avoid related impacts.
