Konica Minolta Toner Fire at Japanese Factory May Affect US Supplies

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prwhite

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According to an Industry Analysts report, “Supply of toners for office products continues so that customers can continue to print. Regarding toners for on-demand digital printing systems, we are trying to recover at an early stage, including adoption of alternative toners…”. The company’s statement regarding the fire can be seen at this link.

When asked about the situation for US customers, Kay Fernandez, Deputy Head, Global DX Branding, SVP Marketing at Konica Minolta had this to say: “We’re thankful that there were no casualties from the explosion at the Konica Minolta Supplies Manufacturing factory. Toner availability is very much based on global inventories, so supply implications will vary across the different regions.”

Fernandez continued: “We have been in close contact with our dealer community. Konica Minolta’s entire executive team is committed to on-going actions to minimize the impact for our dealers and clients. Servicing and supporting our dealer community is one of our top priorities.”
 
In the UK, some SKUs are already out of stock at distributors and last week I was reading discussions on a popular technical forum regarding cross compatibility of other KM SKUs and people decanting into their empty bottles, which can be a messy process.

For KM direct customers in the UK with no toner, I understand there's an arrangement & portal to upload work for Paragon to print the jobs with KM footing the bill. Whilst this may work for some customers with some work, I can't see it being any good for most VDP jobs.
 
Note that this particular fire (not the first one in recent history) occurred over 6 weeks ago.
I think I’ve got enough supplies on hand before our KM machine gets hauled away.
 
My supplier let me know that they were estimated to run out of toner this past Friday of complete sets. They may not have more until mid November or even later. My paper supplier also started rationing paper. I have quit taking orders until Nov 1st. When I CA get my next allotment of paper. I already have every sheet accounted for in my October allotment. I'm a really small printer, but luckily own everything. So shutting down a week or two each month shouldn't hurt me too much. But prolonged down time will force me to shut down until supplies pick up. Good luck to you all.
 
Not to mention the container ships backing up at most major ports.
So even if it gets shipped.. Could be delayed significantly at the ports.
 
Just received a letter from Konica stating that they are not delivering us any more toner starting now for the next 3 months. No further information. This is not looking good. We are in France running a C3080.
 
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