The fire that recently raged at Japanese chip maker Renesas will have a major impact on the supply of chips to the automotive industry worldwide. Renesas CEO Hidetoshi Shibata said this in a statement on Sunday. Renesas, which has Toyota as a major customer, aims to resume production at the plant within a month.
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Renesas is one of the largest suppliers of chips to the automotive industry. The company had to shut down production in a Japanese factory on Friday after a fire broke out in one of the cleanrooms, critical areas that must prevent semiconductors from becoming contaminated with impurities.
The fire at Renesas is extremely inconvenient, as the automotive industry is already struggling with chip shortages worldwide. As a result, several automakers have already been forced to shut down production lines. In our country, Audi Brussels and Volvo Car and Volvo Trucks were affected.
The shortage is partly caused by a very strong increase in demand for equipment for home work and entertainment in the corona era, such as computers, laptops and game consoles. And where there was previously less demand for new cars, this has recently changed. In addition, more and more chips are needed in the production of new cars.
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