KUALA LUMPUR (May 12): Inari Amertron Bhd reported that a fire broke out at one of its manufacturing plants in the Philippines and may cause losses of up to US$5 million (RM21.3 million).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the semiconductor packaging and testing group said the fire occurred at its wholly-owned subsidiary, Amertron Incorporated, in the Philippines (AIP), on May 10 at about 2.30pm and was successfully contained about an hour later.

The incident affected part of the manufacturing facility within plant CK1 in Clark, the Philippines, including sections of the production floor, certain machinery, inventories and supporting facilities.

The affected facility spans about 12,500 sq ft, representing 10% of the total manufacturing space of 125,000 sq ft at CK1, the company said.

Operations at the affected area have been suspended pending safety inspections and clean-up works while operations in the non-affected sections of CK1 have also been temporarily halted due to a power shutdown mandated by the authorities.

Inari said preliminary investigations indicated that the fire may have originated from a wiring short circuit in the ceiling area of the affected facility.

“No fatalities or injuries have been reported,” it said.

The extent of the damage and the cause of the incident are currently being assessed by the relevant authorities and the company’s insurers, Inari said.

The financial impact arising from the incident cannot be reliably estimated pending completion of the assessment, although the loss is not expected to exceed US$5 million, it added.

The company said operations are expected to resume upon approval and installation of dedicated power lines.

Meanwhile, AIP’s other plant, CK2, with a manufacturing space of 83,000 sq ft, was not affected and continues to operate as usual.

“We are currently evaluating alternative production arrangements to minimise disruption to customer deliveries,” the company said.

Inari shares rose two sen, or just over 1%, to RM1.93 ahead of the announcement on Tuesday, valuing the company at RM7.34 billion.