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Hydrogen production hit at Air Products |
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Sep 12, 2005 at 12:53 PM |
Air Products hydrogen production facility in New Orleans, La
has been impacted by Hurricane Katrina, though the scale of the damage and the
time it will take to restore production is currently unknown, according to the
company.
Restart of the plant will be largely dependent on the
availability of power, utilities, communications, other infrastructure access,
and the extent of the damage. Based on initial assessments, damage from the
hurricane will affect Air Products' ability to supply customers with hydrogen
from the New Orleans plant for an extended period of time. In addition, the
company's liquid hydrogen production facility at Sarnia, Ontario, Canada will
be experiencing a scheduled shutdown due to a temporary suspension of its
supplier's feedgas plant. As a result, the company has declared force majeure
for liquid hydrogen at these two industrial gas locations.
The news prompted isuppli, a market research firm that
covers the semiconductor industry to warn that the shutdown could impact wafer
growers in the US and have a knock-on effect on semiconductor sales.
Other suppliers of electronic-grade hydrogen are increasing
their output to compensate for the shortfall. Furthermore, alternative
purification techniques are being implemented by silicon manufacturers that
will allow lower grades of hydrogen gas to be used for making silicon and
epitaxial films.
The full impact on the semiconductor supply chain remains
unknown, according to iSuppli, which will continue to monitor the situation and
will provide further analysis in due course.
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