Fire at Jiangsu Circuit Board Plant Threatens Supplies to Automakers

What’s New: A fire at a printed circuit board factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, is threatening to disrupt supplies to global auto parts giant Robert Bosch GmbH and its customers.

The fire broke out around noon Monday at a Unimicron Technology (Kunshan) Corp. plant. No casualties were reported, and an investigation of the cause of the fire is underway.

Printed circuit boards produced by Kunshan Unimicron support more than 50 products produced by Bosch, which initiated an emergence response to coordinate parts supplies globally, Caixin learned. The Kunshan plant may have to halt production for four weeks.

Why it matters: The accident may cut supplies of the circuit boards to some automakers that rely solely on Kunshan Unimicron for the essential components for building modern advanced autos, Caixin learned. Kunshan Unimicron is majority-owned by Taiwan Unimicron Technology.

The supply glitch may affect automakers’ sales in September and October, the traditional peak of auto sales, dampening a business that has already been damaged by the Covid-19 pandemic, analysts said.

Taiwan Unimicron said the Kunshan plant will need government approval to resume production. The unit contributes about 6% of Taiwan Unimicron’s revenue.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full story in Chinese, click here.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).

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