INTERNATIONAL

Explosion Destroys Tokyo Semiconductor-Material Factory: An explosion destroyed a plant that produces more than half the world’s supply of a material used in making semiconductors, called epoxy resin. One person was killed and three were injured. The cause of the blast at the Sumitomo Chemical Co. facility was not immediately known. A Sumitomo official, Osamu Hidate, said much of the plant’s annual production of 11,000 tons of resin was exported to Southeast Asian manufacturers of semiconductors, which are key components of computers and many other electronic goods. The company said it had a one-month stockpile of epoxy resin. It was not immediately known if other companies will be able to compensate for the lost supply.