Apparently, there were two companies in the US that produced the lacquer but then consolidation happened and Apollo bought out the competitor and shut it down.

Apparently, there were two companies in the US that produced the lacquer but then consolidation happened and Apollo bought out the competitor and shut it down. [1] >Gil Tamazyan, the owner of Los Angeles record pressing plant Capsule Labs, said he's been concerned for the industry since Apollo purchased competitor Transco in 2007. >"The worst case from (the fire) would be if Apollo doesn't plan to return and doesn't share the intellectual properties with another new willing company. We all agree there needs to be more than one supplier for these materials," Tamazyan said. "All my industry colleagues are worried this might take a long time to figure out and, in the process, major delays may arise in the vinyl production market." So now only the Japanese company, MDC, remains as the sole producer of the lacquer. Lacquer is basically a formulation of nitrocellulose and is highly flammable. If you've never seen a lacquer master being cut, give this vid a watch [2]. Not surprisingly, the audio engineer uses the Apollo lacquer master in the video. [1] https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/2020/02/07/apollo-masters-fire-vinyl-records/4692215002/ https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/2020/02/07/apollo-maste... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl8bhzob0fQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl8bhzob0fQ