• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Articles
  • News
  • Events
  • Advertize
  • Jobs
  • Courses
  • Contact
  • (0)
  • LoginRegister
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS
      Articles
      News
      Events
      Job Posts
    • Twitter
Datafloq

Datafloq

Data and Technology Insights

  • Categories
    • Big Data
    • Blockchain
    • Cloud
    • Internet Of Things
    • Metaverse
    • Robotics
    • Cybersecurity
    • Startups
    • Strategy
    • Technical
  • Big Data
  • Blockchain
  • Cloud
  • Metaverse
  • Internet Of Things
  • Robotics
  • Cybersecurity
  • Startups
  • Strategy
  • Technical

Japanese carmakers assess impact of fire at Renesas chip plant

Reuters / 3 min read.
March 22, 2021
floq.to/Bk1s4

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota, Nissan, Honda and other Japanese carmakers scrambled on Monday to assess the impact on their production of a fire at a Renesas Electronics chip plant that could aggravate a global semiconductor shortage.

Renesas has said it will take at least a month to resume production at 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 sensitive clean room.

The fallout on carmakers could spread beyond Japan to auto companies in Europe and the United States because Renesas has about a 30% share of the global market for microcontroller unit chips used in cars.

“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.

Two-thirds of production at the affected line is automotive chips. Renesas also has a 200mm wafer line at its Naka plant which has not been affected.

Concerns about the impact of the fire hit auto shares, with the big three, Toyota, Honda and Nissan, all closing down by at least 3.3%. Renesas shares tumbled as much as 5.5% and ended 4.9% lower. The benchmark Topix index shed nearly 1%.

“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,” said Seiji Sugiura, senior analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute. “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 cars, including to monitor engine performance, manage steering or automatic windows, and in sensors used in parking and entertainment systems.

GOVERNMENT PROMISES HELP

Nissan and Honda have already been forced to scale back production plans because of the global chip shortage resulting from burgeoning demand from electronic goods makers and an unexpected rebound in car sales after a slump during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Toyota, which has agreements with some parts suppliers to stockpile 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.”

European carmakers said on Monday they could not yet assess whether the fire would have any impact on global chip supplies. Germany’s BMW said its plants were running even though semiconductor supply in general remained tight.

A spokesman for France’s Renault said it was currently difficult to asses the volume impact “given the complexity of the supply chain of semi-conductors”.

Volkswagen, the world’s second-largest carmaker, confirmed it does not have direct supply agreements with semiconductor makers. “Of course every additional shortage in the sector further tightens global supply,” it said.

Renesas said its customers, which are mostly automotive parts makers rather than the car companies, will begin to see chip shipments fall in about a month.

The company declined to say which machine caught fire because of the electrical fault 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 on Monday.

The latest incident at the Naka facility comes after an earthquake last month shut down production for three days and forced Renesas to further deplete chip stocks to meet orders.

The plant was closed for three months in 2011 following the deadly earthquake that devastated Japan’s northeast coast.

(Reporting by Maki Shiraki, Eimi Yamamitsu and Noriyuki Hirata; Additional reporting by Christina Amann, Gilles Guillaume and Christoph Steitz; Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and David Clarke)

Categories: News
Tags: Institute, news, share, technology, volume

About Reuters

Primary Sidebar

E-mail Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates daily and to hear what's going on with us!

Publish
AN Article
Submit
a press release
List
AN Event
Create
A Job Post

Jobs

  • Software Engineer | South Yorkshire, GB - February 07, 2023
  • Software Engineer with C# .net Investment House | London, GB - February 07, 2023
  • Senior Java Developer | London, GB - February 07, 2023
  • Software Engineer – Growing Digital Media Company | London, GB - February 07, 2023
  • LBG Returners – Senior Data Analyst | Chester Moor, GB - February 07, 2023
More Jobs
Host your website with Managed WordPress for $1.00/mo with GoDaddy!

Tags

AI Amazon analysis analytics app application Artificial Intelligence BI Big Data business China Cloud Companies company costs crypto customers Data design development digital environment experience future Google+ government industry information learning machine learning market mobile Musk news Other public research security services share social social media software strategy technology

News

  • Robinhood sees $100 million costs tied to regulatory issues in third quarter
  • Elon Musk’s X Corp in another legal fight over unpaid rent, this time as plaintiff
  • EU examines Nvidia-dominated AI chip market’s abuses – Bloomberg News
  • Valkyrie Funds halts ethereum purchases for exchange-traded fund
  • China’s Huawei sets up commodities hedging team in Singapore, Hong Kong
More News

Related Online Courses

  • Oracle Cloud Data Management Foundations Workshop
  • Data Science at Scale
  • Statistics with Python
More courses

Footer


Datafloq is the one-stop source for big data, blockchain and artificial intelligence. We offer information, insights and opportunities to drive innovation with emerging technologies.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Recent

  • 5 Reasons Why Modern Data Integration Gives You a Competitive Advantage
  • 5 Most Common Database Structures for Small Businesses
  • 6 Ways to Reduce IT Costs Through Observability
  • How is Big Data Analytics Used in Business? These 5 Use Cases Share Valuable Insights
  • How Realistic Are Self-Driving Cars?

Search

Tags

AI Amazon analysis analytics app application Artificial Intelligence BI Big Data business China Cloud Companies company costs crypto customers Data design development digital environment experience future Google+ government industry information learning machine learning market mobile Musk news Other public research security services share social social media software strategy technology

Copyright © 2023 Datafloq
HTML Sitemap| Privacy| Terms| Cookies

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

In order to optimize the website and to continuously improve Datafloq, we use cookies. For more information click here.

Dear visitor,
Thank you for visiting Datafloq. If you find our content interesting, please subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Did you know that you can publish job posts for free on Datafloq? You can start immediately and find the best candidates for free! Click here to get started.

Not Now Subscribe

Thanks for visiting Datafloq
If you enjoyed our content on emerging technologies, why not subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive the latest news straight into your mailbox?

Subscribe

No thanks

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Marketing cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!