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Renesas Literally Under Fire – Driver ICs Impacted
Renesas Electronics warned that a fire at one of its factories could have “a massive impact” on global semiconductor supplies and halt production for at least a month.
The timing of Friday’s fire at the advanced chip facility in Japan could not be worse for carmakers, which were already wrestling with widespread disruption to supply chains caused by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the US cold snap that led to mass blackouts in Texas. The fire broke out in one of the clean rooms at the company’s plant in Naka city, north of Tokyo, bringing to a halt the production of 300mm wafers and burning about 2 per cent of the facility’s manufacturing equipment. About two-thirds of the affected production was automotive chips, according to Shibata. If the facility remains offline for a month, he added, Renesas will lose about ¥17bn ($156m) in revenue. The financial hit is not expected to have any impact on the group’s plan to buy Apple supplier Dialog for €4.9bn. About two-thirds of the chips affected in the latest fire can be produced elsewhere. But Shibata acknowledged that finding alternative facilities to make its chips would be difficult since the industry is already struggling with a lack of spare production capacity at foundries. The chip shortage threatens to delay output for other forms of electronics, including smartphones, where Renesas is one of the main suppliers of DDICs.
Renesas Electronics warned that a fire at one of its factories could have “a massive impact” on global semiconductor supplies and halt production for at least a month.
The timing of Friday’s fire at the advanced chip facility in Japan could not be worse for carmakers, which were already wrestling with widespread disruption to supply chains caused by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the US cold snap that led to mass blackouts in Texas. The fire broke out in one of the clean rooms at the company’s plant in Naka city, north of Tokyo, bringing to a halt the production of 300mm wafers and burning about 2 per cent of the facility’s manufacturing equipment. About two-thirds of the affected production was automotive chips, according to Shibata. If the facility remains offline for a month, he added, Renesas will lose about ¥17bn ($156m) in revenue. The financial hit is not expected to have any impact on the group’s plan to buy Apple supplier Dialog for €4.9bn. About two-thirds of the chips affected in the latest fire can be produced elsewhere. But Shibata acknowledged that finding alternative facilities to make its chips would be difficult since the industry is already struggling with a lack of spare production capacity at foundries. The chip shortage threatens to delay output for other forms of electronics, including smartphones, where Renesas is one of the main suppliers of DDICs.
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