Deadly Fire At Taiwan Factory Could Greatly Impact Global Supply Of Golf Balls

Multiple explosions at a factory in Taipei, Taiwan last Friday resulted in at least nine people, including four firefighters, being killed in a fire after parts of the building collapsed and trapped workers. While the loss of life is far more impactful and tragic, the tragedy is also expected to have a significant impact on the golf ball industry around the world.

The factory manufactured golf balls for Launch Technologies Inc., which is a leading supplier of golf balls on the planet. The Associated Press has reported that Callaway, TaylorMade, Mizuno, Wilson, and Bridgestone were all listed on the company's annual report from 2021.

The global golf ball supply could be greatly impacted for a year-plus following the Taiwan factory tragedy. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Launch Technologies reportedly shipped more than 260 million golf balls in 2022, which makes up over 20% of all the golf balls sold worldwide. Of those 260 million golf balls sold a year ago, 80% of sales came via the United States.

Dean Klatt, CEO and founder of Seed Golf, a golf ball manufacturer, said in an email to Golf Digest that there would be “a complete shutdown, overnight, for at least 12 months.

Klatt also went on to explain how difficult it is to simply move manufacturing elsewhere, especially with equipment being destroyed.

“Moving manufacture is not easy in this case. Tooling (i.e. dimple patterns) will have most likely been destroyed, so it's a complete rebuild at a new plant with many unknowns," Klatt explained. "Dimple tooling is expensive, and that set-up takes time, then there's the quality control issues to consider once you get to production phase at a new plant. At best, I would say six months to reestablish supply elsewhere.”

While the cause of the fire remains unknown, CTV News has reported that Launch Technologies was fined $75,000 on the Monday after the explosions “for storing 30 times the legal limit of hazardous material and other violations.” The report states that the company could also face criminal charges.