Company
Hitachi Chemical
TL;DR
Hitachi Chemical operated a plant in Fukushima prefecture that produced 60% of global supply of certain epoxy resins essential for semiconductor packaging.
Hitachi Chemical operated a plant in Fukushima prefecture that produced 60% of global supply of certain epoxy resins essential for semiconductor packaging. When the 2011 earthquake and tsunami forced the plant offline, multiple supposedly independent semiconductor suppliers faced simultaneous material shortages.
The chapter uses Hitachi Chemical to illustrate how hidden single points of failure at upstream supply chain tiers can undermine downstream diversification strategies.