TOKYO—A fire at a factory of one of the world’s leading auto chip makers has added to the troubles of car makers that already have slashed production because of a semiconductor shortage.
The fire Friday left a swath of charred equipment in the factory owned by a subsidiary of
Renesas Electronics Corp.
in Hitachinaka, northeast of Tokyo. The company said it would take at least a month to restart the damaged operations.
Shares of Japan’s three leading car makers—
Toyota Motor Corp.
,
Nissan Motor Co.
and
Honda Motor Co.
—all fell by more than 3% on Monday, worse than the overall market, while Renesas shares were down 4.9%.
The company said heat from electrical overcurrent inside a single piece of equipment caused the fire.
Photo:
Renesas Electronics Corp.
Renesas said heat from an electrical problem inside a single piece of equipment caused the fire and contaminated clean rooms needed to make semiconductors. It said two-thirds of the chips made at the fire-affected factory were automotive chips.
Renesas’s chief executive,
Hidetoshi Shibata,
said Sunday the impact on global chip supplies would be significant.
Mariko Semetko,
a credit analyst at Moody’s Japan, said the fire was likely to damp the recovery of global auto production this year, while auto makers said they were still assessing the impact.
Mr. Shibata said the company was trying to make up for the lost production at other plants but didn’t know whether that was possible. The company estimated the revenue losses at the equivalent of $160 million a month.
Car makers have already been struggling with a shortage of semiconductors stemming in part from an unexpectedly strong comeback after the coronavirus pandemic hit last year. That left factories ill-prepared to increase production quickly.
Ford Motor Co.
said in February it expected to cut output by up to 20% in the first quarter of this year, costing the company $1 billion to $2.5 billion in pretax profit.
Sudden shortages of other parts and materials have also hit the global supply chain in recent weeks. The February freeze and blackout in Texas caused…
Read More: Fire at Giant Auto-Chip Plant Fuels Supply Concerns