Final week’s harmful earthquake in Japan may exacerbate the worldwide microchip scarcity, simply because the tally of automobiles faraway from manufacturing unit schedules up to now this yr passes the 1 million mark.
Renesas Electronics Corp., a significant producer of automotive chips, final week halted manufacturing at three Japanese vegetation following a 7.4-magnitude earthquake on Wednesday, March 16.
Two of the vegetation remained shut down at week’s finish, whereas the third resumed partial manufacturing on take a look at traces. It was not clear when full manufacturing may restart.
The catastrophe left 2 million households with out energy in Japan, but in addition threatens to have ripple results within the auto provide chain. About 1.2 million automobiles have been lower from international manufacturing plans this yr due to chip shortages, AutoForecast Options estimates. That’s up from about 929,500 automobiles one week earlier, pushed largely by further manufacturing cuts in Europe and Asia.