Japan's Murata to close key component plant over COVID-19 cluster (updated)

Murata Manufacturing Co

26/08/2021 07:57

(Adds confirmation, company comment)
    Aug 26 (Reuters) - Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd  6981.T  will
temporarily close a plant in Japan that makes a key electronic
component of smart phones, computers and cars, among other
products, to fight a COVID-19 outbreak there, a company official
said on Thursday.
    Murata is the world's biggest supplier of the component, and
any lengthy production halt that disrupted shipments could 
further squeeze electronic device makers struggling to find
other components, including semiconductors.
    The Echizen plant in the central prefecture of Fukui, which
makes multilayer ceramic capacitors, will be shut until at least
Aug. 31 after 98 of its 7,000 workers tested positive for the
virus, a company spokesperson said. 
    "Our plan at the moment is to stay closed until Aug 31, but
any decision to extend that will be based on infection results
we see next week," the spokesperson said. 
    Murata said it planned to used existing stocks of capacitors
and output from plants elsewhere to make up for lost production
from the Echizen factory. 

 (Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru and Tim Kelly in
Tokyo; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
 ((Anirudh.Saligrama@thomsonreuters.com;))