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Business

Mitsubishi Halts Production After Blast

by Jean-François Tremblay
January 20, 2014 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 92, Issue 3

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Credit: Newscom
First responders at the scene of the blast at Mitsubishi’s Yokkaichi plant.
Photo of an ambulance parks at a plant of Japanese chemical company Mitsubishi Materials in Yokkaichi in Mie prefecture, central Japan on January 9, 2014, following an explosion that killed at least five people and injured a dozen more.
Credit: Newscom
First responders at the scene of the blast at Mitsubishi’s Yokkaichi plant.

Mitsubishi Materials has suspended production at a polysilicon plant in Yokkaichi, Japan, where five workers died in an explosion earlier this month. The exact cause of the accident is so far unknown, but Mitsubishi says that the workers—three staff and two contractors—were cleaning hydrogen purification equipment in a heat exchanger at the time. Ten other employees and two contractors were also injured in the blast. Late last month, Mitsubishi Materials said it would write down the value of the Yokkaichi plant because of the poor profitability of the polysilicon business in recent months. Following the accident, Mitsubishi announced that senior managers in the company, including the chairman, will take a pay cut of between 15 and 30%, depending on seniority.

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