Explosion at a manufacturing plant of our affiliated company in U.S.

Here is slightly more informative posting form NDK in Japan regarding the impact of the Belvidere plant.  See the embolden text—that section appears to be new.

 

  - Report on the present situation on December 10, 2009 (local time) -

Dec 11,2009

   An explosion occurred at NDK Crystal Inc., our affiliated company in Illinois, U.S.A., at approximately 2:30 p.m., December 7, 2009 (local time). We report on the outline of the accident confirmed on December 10 (local time) and the expected impact on our future operations.

   We express our heartfelt condolences to the victim and sincere sympathy to the bereaved family. We are investigating the causes of this accident and will inform you of the conclusion of the investigation as soon as it is reached.

1.
Outline of the accident and the situation of damage

(1) Date
Around 2:30 p.m., December 7, 2009 (local time)

(2) Site
Premise of NDK Crystal Inc.

(3) Situation of damage
An explosion at NDK Crystal Inc. destroyed parts of the production facilities at the plant and killed a man in a nearby area. Local officials have not confirmed any other injuries. No plant employees were injured.
NDK Crystal Inc. leases office space to an affiliate, NDK America, Inc., which sells NDK Group products. The office area of NDK America, Inc. is not badly damaged.

(4) Causes
Under investigation

(5) Amount of damage
We expect that the damage to NDK Crystal Inc.'s production facilities and plant building will have a negligible impact on our financial results for the year ended March 2010 because such facilities and plant building have almost been fully depreciated. At this time, we are unable to determine at this time the amount of damage to the physical structures.
We are unable to determine what claims may arise from the explosion. We are investigating all of the possible damages and losses.
The sum of the book value of NDK Crystal, Inc.'s inventory assets and that of the in-use fixed assets is about 50 million yen (as of the end of October).

(6) Resumption of production
To be announced

2.
Others

   The main product of NDK Crystal Inc. is synthetic quartz crystal. We believe we can maintain a stable supply of such products because we have sufficient stock and the volume of synthetic quartz crystal production at our Sayama plant (a plant in Japan) accounts for a large share of the total production by the NDK Group.