Fire at Asahi Kasei factory: production of DAC and ADC chips stopped for at least a year

On October 20, a fire broke out at the AKM factory in the Japanese city of Nobeoka, but it became known about it only recently. It is at this plant that the DAC and ADC chips are produced. Apparently, none of the employees were injured, but the building was not so lucky: part of the roof and some of the walls collapsed. It took over 80 hours to put out the fire.

The incident negatively affected the operation of the factory: representatives of AKM said that they would have to increase the volume of outsourcing of products in order to meet market demands, since the company itself now cannot cope with the release of the necessary devices. There is no specifics in the message of AKM, but among those who buy products from AKM, panic began – and many companies increased the volume of purchases of already produced chips in order to compensate for a potential shortage in the future.

For example, representatives of Millennia Media said that the factory will be idle for at least a year, which is why audio equipment manufacturers may have to make changes to the circuitry of many devices. Millennia Media itself uses the older AKM chips in the HV-316 wireless microphone preamplifiers – their stock of chips will last for about a year of production. But in case the AKM factory does not return to work by the fourth quarter of 2021, they will have to upgrade the device schematic.

It is known that the fire precisely affected the supply of chips of the AK4332, AK4331, AK4432, AK4382, AK4385, AK4373, AK4396, AK4431, AK4456, AK4490, AK4493, AK4495 series chips, and may also have affected the supply of AK5384, AK5385, AK5386, AK345397 …