Toyota Motor Corp said its biggest source of production in China is to remain closed for at least two weeks following the deadly Tianjin explosions on Aug. 12 as safety concerns prevent the company from resuming operations.
The automaker’s affiliate Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co (天津一汽豐田) is to extend the production shutdown through Wednesday, spokesman Itsuki Kurosu said in an e-mail. About 4,700 Toyota and Lexus vehicles were damaged by the explosions at a chemical storage site in Tianjin, he said.
Operations are to restart once Toyota is able to confirm the safety of its facilities and the surrounding area, Kurosu said. Tianjin FAW Toyota built about 440,000 Crown, Reiz, Corolla and Vios cars last year, almost half of Toyota’s annual vehicle output in China.
Toyota has emerged as one of the hardest-hit carmakers by the blasts at a Tianjin warehouse holding toxic material that killed at least 121 people and injured 67 Toyota employees living in the surrounding area.
The disaster took a broader toll on the auto industry, damaging 2,700 Volkswagen AG cars and shutting a nearby Hyundai Motor Co logistics center.
Separately, US auto-safety regulators are investigating Honda’s 2008 model Accord after receiving 19 reports that air-bag control modules had failed.
As many as 384,000 vehicles might be affected by a malfunction that could stop airbags from deploying in a crash, according to an National Highway Traffic Safety Administration filing, which states that the investigation opened on Tuesday last week. One of the reports involved a crash in which the airbags did not inflate and the driver was injured, the document states.
The problem causes the air-bag status lamp to light up and the air-bag system remains disabled until repaired, according to the administration’s Office of Defects Investigation.
The office is to examine the scope and frequency of the issue in deciding whether to seek a recall.
Air bags have been a thorn in the side for Honda and the auto industry more broadly this year. Early last month, the company recalled 4.5 million cars globally in connection with Takata Corp air bags, expanding the industry’s largest recall ever.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks
RSS