Fire Damages AXT factory in Beijing
Processing of all wafer substrates has been halted
AXT, a manufacturer of compound semiconductor substrates, has announced that an electrical short-circuit fire occurred at its Beijing manufacturing facility on the evening of March 15, 2017, local time.
The fire was located in its GaAs and germanium crystal growth production area and production in that area has stopped. No injuries occurred and there was no structural damage.
Although InP crystal growth as well as the wafer processing areas for GaAs, InP and Germanium were not affected, the processing of all wafer substrates has been halted.
The company is working with the fire department and other local regulatory agencies to identify the cause of the fire and form a plan to resume production as quickly as possible.
Due to the immediacy of this event, no details are yet available. Morris Young, CEO, and Gary Fischer, CFO, traveled to Beijing earlier in March and remain on site at this time to oversee the situation.
As a result of this event, the company now believes that revenue for the first quarter, ending March 31, 2017, will be in the range of $18.0M to $18.5M, compared with previous guidance of $19.5M to $20.5M.
