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You're probably thinking of the 1993 explosion at Sumitomo Chemical Company's plant that made epoxy resin for semiconductors:

"Semiconductor Industry Faces Problems After Resin Plant Explosion"

https://apnews.com/article/8fe2925b68d34d33f19a53e4892c74a2

It caused a significant spike in DRAM prices:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-08-06-930806...

Today's low personal computer prices, particularly those on machines made by smaller companies, are likely soon to shoot up more than $100 per machine because of a panic in the world memory-chip market.

Prices already have doubled for computer owners who want to expand the capacity of their machines to handle memory-hungry new programs based on Macintosh System 7 or on Microsoft Windows or the OS/2 operating system for IBM compatibles, industry officials said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-08-06-930806...



That's close enough that it's probably the event. It might have been slightly oversimplified or 2 decades of neuron decay since I heard about it Nth hand yielding the same effect.




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