TOKYO — Renesas Electronics , a key automotive semiconductor provider, stated on Sunday that manufacturing at a fire-damaged plant will take a minimum of a month to restart, probably worsening a chip scarcity that’s disrupting light-vehicle output worldwide.

About two-thirds of manufacturing on the superior 300 mm wafer line affected by Friday’s fireplace is automotive chips, CEO Hidetoshi Shibata stated throughout a web based briefing.

“It comes at a time when there is not extra manufacturing capability,” he stated.

Carmakers are already battling a worldwide chip scarcity attributable to a COVID-19-driven increase in client electronics and an sudden robust rebound in auto gross sales. Normal Motors, Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have needed to trim manufacturing plans consequently.

Automakers will begin to really feel a provide pinch in a couple of month, in keeping with Renesas.

The chipmaker, together with automakers and their key suppliers, are on the lookout for methods to reduce the impression of the hearth, Shibata stated.

A Toyota Motor Corp. spokeswoman stated the world’s largest automaker is assessing the state of affairs.

The hearth on the Naka chip plant in northeast Japan destroyed 11 machines, or 2 p.c of the manufacturing tools, and despatched smoke billowing by way of the clear room the place even small particles of mud can injury wafers in the course of the delicate fabrication course of.

Renesas might not have the ability to exchange all of the destroyed tools inside a month, Shibata stated, that means {that a} return to full manufacturing might take longer.

The corporate, he added, could possibly depend on different vegetation to switch round two-thirds of the misplaced manufacturing, which is price round 17 billion yen ($156 million) a month.

The most recent disruption on the Naka vegetation comes after manufacturing stopped for a couple of days final month after an earthquake minimize energy and again up mills failed to begin.

In 2011, Renesas needed to shut the power for 3 months following the lethal earthquake that devastated Japan’s northeast coast.