Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co, Honda Motor Co and other Japanese automakers yesterday scrambled to assess the production impact of a fire at a Renesas Electronics Corp automotive chip plant that could aggravate a global semiconductor shortage.
“We are gathering information and trying to see if this will affect us or not,” a Honda spokesman said.
Other automakers, including Toyota and Nissan, said they too were assessing the situation.
Photo: Reuters
The effect on automakers could spread beyond Japan to other auto companies in Europe and the US, because Renesas has about a 30 percent global share of microcontroller unit chips used in vehicles.
Renesas said it would take at least a month to restart production on a 300mm wafer line at its Naka plant in northeast Japan after an electrical fault caused machinery to catch fire on Friday and poured smoke into the clean room.
Two-thirds of production at the affected line is automotive chips. The Naka plant also has a 200mm wafer line, which has not been affected.
Concerns on the effects of the fire on production sent auto shares sliding, with the big three — Toyota, Honda and Nissan — closing down more than 3.3 percent.
Renesas shares tumbled as much as 5.5 percent and ended 4.9 percent lower. The benchmark TOPIX shed nearly 1 percent.
“It will probably take more than a month to return to normal supply. Given that, even Toyota will face very unstable production in April and May,” Tokai Tokyo Research Institute senior analyst Seiji Sugiura said. “I think Honda, Nissan and other makers will also be facing a difficult situation.”
Semiconductors such as those made by Renesas are used extensively in vehicles, including to monitor engine performance, manage steering or automatic windows, and in sensors used in parking and entertainment systems.
Nissan and Honda had already been forced to scale back production plans because of a chip shortage resulting from burgeoning demand from consumer electronic makers and an unexpected rebound in vehicle sales from a slump during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Toyota, which ensured parts suppliers had enough stocks of chips, has fared better so far.
“It could take three months or even half a year for a full recovery,” said Akira Minamikawa, analyst at technology research company Omdia.
“This has happened when chip stockpiles are low, so the impact is going to be significant,” he added.
Renesas said that its customers, which are mostly automotive parts makers rather than the auto companies, would begin to see chip shipments fall in about a month.
The company declined to say which machine caught fire or which company made it.
The Japanese government promised help for the auto industry.
“We will firmly try to help the Naka factory achieve swift restoration by helping it quickly acquire alternative manufacturing equipment,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a regular news conference yesterday.
The incident at the Naka facility came after an earthquake last month shut down production for three days and forced Renesas to further deplete chip stocks to keep up with orders.
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