On Monday, June 1st, a fire broke out at the semiconductor giant SK Hynix’s wafer factory in Cheongju, South Korea, triggering a leak of hydrogen fluoride gas. The incident resulted in 7 employees being sent to the hospital for symptoms such as eye irritation, prompting the emergency evacuation of approximately 3,600 employees.
Around 10:32 AM local time, a fire started in the gas chamber on the 6th floor of the facility. The automatic water sprinkler system quickly extinguished the flames, but the activation of the water sprinklers apparently triggered the hydrogen fluoride leak. The incident affected the gas supply area connecting the M15 and M15X production lines, not the cleanroom housing the manufacturing equipment.
SK Hynix stated that the company followed standard safety procedures throughout the entire incident. By around 1:38 PM local time, the remaining gas had been cleared. After completing air quality testing and thorough safety inspections, employees were allowed to return to the site.
In a statement, SK Hynix indicated that the fire had been swiftly brought under control. As the operation of the production equipment was unaffected, manufacturing lines continued to operate normally without any recorded disruptions. Currently, the company is collaborating with fire departments and other relevant agencies to investigate the exact causes of the fire and gas leak.
As one of the world’s largest memory chip manufacturers, SK Hynix’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, crucial infrastructure in the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, have been utilized in Nvidia’s most advanced AI accelerators and other cutting-edge hardware. The Cheongju facility serves as a key node in this supply chain. The M15 facility is responsible for producing NAND flash memory, while the M15X facility is an expansion project.
Market analysts report that this incident is not expected to significantly impact global semiconductor supply or lead to potential price fluctuations.
Furthermore, around 10:59 AM on the same day, a serious explosion and fire incident occurred at the factory of the South Korean defense and aerospace giant, Hanwha Aerospace, located in Daejeon.
The accident took place in the cleaning room of the rocket propellant production line, resulting in the complete destruction of a building and causing 5 fatalities and 2 injuries.