TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota, Nissan, Honda and other Japanese automakers scrambled Monday to assess the production impact of a fire at a Renesas Electronics car factory that could exacerbate a global semiconductor shortage.
“We are gathering information and trying to see if it will affect us or not,” a Honda spokesman said. Other carmakers, including Toyota and Nissan, said they were also assessing the situation.
The impact on automakers could spread beyond Japan to other automotive companies in Europe and the United States because Renesas has about 30% worldwide share of chips for microcontrollers used in automobiles.
Renesas said it would take at least a month to begin production of a 300mm wafer line at its Naka plant in northeastern Japan after an electrical fault caused machinery to catch fire and smoke in the sensitive area on Friday. clean room.
Two-thirds of the production on the line in question is car chips. The company also has a 200mm wafer line at the Naka plant, which has not been affected.
Concerns about the impact of the fire on production led to the car shares slipping, with the big three, Toyota, Honda and Nissan, closing more than 3.3%. Renesas’ shares tumbled to 5.5% and ended 4.9% lower. The standard Topix index plunged nearly 1%.
“It will probably take more than a month to get back to normal. Given that, even Toyota will experience a very volatile production in April and May, ‘says Seiji Sugiura, senior analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute. “I think Honda, Nissan and other manufacturers will also be in a difficult situation.”
Semiconductors such as those manufactured by Renesas are widely used in automobiles, including engine performance, steering or automatic windows, and in sensors used in parking and entertainment systems.
Nissan and Honda have already been forced to reduce production plans due to the scarcity of chips due to the growing demand from consumer electronics manufacturers and an unexpected recovery in car sales due to a slump during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Toyota, which has ensured parts suppliers have enough stock of chips, has fared better so far.
“It could take three months or even half a year for a complete recovery,” said Akira Minamikawa, an analyst at technology research firm Omdia. “This happened when the stock of the chips was low, and the impact was going to be significant,” he added.
GOVT PROMISED HELP
Renesas said its customers, who are mostly auto parts manufacturers rather than auto companies, will start dropping the shipment of chips within a month. The company would not say which machine caught fire due to the electrical fault or which company made it.
The Japanese government has promised aid to the car industry.
“We will definitely try to repair the Naka factory quickly by helping it quickly acquire alternative manufacturing equipment,” Katsunobu Kato, chief cabinet secretary, said at a regular news conference on Monday.
The latest incident at the Naka plant comes after an earthquake last month halted production for three days and forced Renesas to further deplete the disk stock to keep up with orders.
The plant was closed for three months in 2011 after the deadly earthquake that devastated Japan’s north coast.
Reporting by Maki Shiraki, Eimi Yamamitsu and Noriyuki Hirata; Written by Tim Kelly; Edited by Muralikumar Anantharaman