Chip-starved automakers shudder at Renesas plant's 1-month halt
TOKYO -- Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics said Sunday that production may take up to a month to resume at a fire-damaged main factory in Hitachinaka, northeast of Tokyo.
But considering the many processes in semiconductor fabrication, it may take over three months for supply chains return to normal.
Renesas' fire could not come at a worse time for the auto industry. Already battered by a global shortage of semiconductors, the industry had been scrambling to respond to the Texas winter storm that knocked out production at NXP Semiconductors and Infineon Technologies, the world's No. 1 and No. 3 players in automotive chips.
Renesas is No. 2. It controls around a 20% global share in microcontrollers and supplies the likes of Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor.
The company's shares fell almost 5% in Tokyo on Monday morning.
The fire broke out at 2:47 a.m. on Friday and took more than five hours to bring under control. A production line that produces the latest 300 mm wafers was damaged. About two-thirds of the chips produced at the plant are for the auto industry, according to the company.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Chip-starved-automakers-shudder-at-Renesas-plant-s-1-month-halt
The fire was caused by plating equipment in one of the buildings due to a surge in current, destroying 600 square meters, including some 5% of the buildings clean room area. However, the entire building has had to be closed down to allow cleaning and reconstruction.
https://www.eetimes.com/fire-destroys-part-of-renesas-fab/