Apollo / Transco fire

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Have you heard of the Apollo / Transco fire in Banning CA, as reported on https://www.analogplanet.com/content/major-vinyl-production-catastrophe-apollotransco-lacquers-burns ?

Tragically this leaves only one remaining lacquer factory in operation, located in Japan.

Have you heard any feedback already from cutting engineers or others in the business? What’s the estimated short-term impact?

I sincerely hope they get back on their feet with the help of their insurance, and that people won’t lose their jobs.

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#2

From a friend of mine in the biz:

The disaster will certainly constrain the lacquer supply in the short term. MDC (the other lacquer plant in Japan) was having difficulty keeping up with demand already. Even if MDC was able to magically, drastically scale their operation to meet the new demand, the lacquers take three months to cure. Pressing plants were putting in rush orders to mastering/cutting studios yesterday, trying to get ahead of the inevitable supply constraint when existing lacquer stocks run out.

The medium-long term impact remains to be seen, but we’ll probably be fine. Rumors are floating that Sony, Universal and Jack White are all throwing money at a rush effort to get a new lacquer plant online.

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#3

Apparently MDC is now shut down due to coronavirus concerns…