Japan chip heavyweights halt output after quake, in another blow for auto industry (updated)

Murata Manufacturing Co

17/03/2022 09:14

(Recasts, adds detail)
    By Tim Kelly and Shinji Kitamura
    TOKYO, March 17 (Reuters) - Japanese chipmaker Renesas
Electronics Corp and component maker Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd
both suspended some operations on Thursday after an earthquake
jolted the country's northeast, in the latest blow to the global
auto supply chain.
    Renesas  6723.T , which has been plagued by past stoppages,
has emerged as a critical chokepoint for global automakers. 
    It makes nearly a third of the microcontroller chips used in
cars around the world. Murata  6981.T  is one of the world's top
suppliers of the ceramic capacitors used in smart phones,
computers and cars. 
    While neither is a household name in the West along the
lines of a Sony Group Corp  6758.T  or a Panasonic Corp
 6752.T , they are examples of the many Japanese firms that have
retained dominance in highly specialised technology even as the
country's might in consumer electronics has diminished. 
    Renesas said it had temporarily halted production at two
semiconductor plants and partially stopped output at a third.
    Among them was its advanced 300 millimetre wafer Naka plant
in Ibaraki prefecture, which supplies semiconductors to auto
companies around the world that have already had to curb output
because of chip shortages resulting from COVID-19 related
disruptions.
    "We are assessing the impact of the earthquake on our
overall supply chain" it said in a statement, adding workers
were assessing damage at the plant including in the sensitive
clean rooms.
    A fire at the Naka plant last year hit production for months
and reverberated across the industry. 
    Ford Motor Co  F.N  said as much as 80% of its lost vehicle
production in the second quarter of last year was due to the
Renesas plant fire.
    Murata said it had suspended operations at four factories
following the quake and that a fire had broken out at one
producing chip inductors for smartphones and cars, it said. The
fire was later extinguished, it said.
    Highlighting the strain on the auto industry, Japan's
largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp.  7203.T , said its global
production target would be 10% lower in May and 5% lower in June
than previously estimated.
    The revised estimates did not include the impact of the
quake, it said.

 (Reporting by Tim Kelly and Shinji Kitamura; additional
reporting by Sam Nussey; writing by David Dolan; editing by
Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jason Neely)
 ((tim.kelly@thomsonreuters.com; +813-6441-1311;))