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TOKYO – A fire at a factory at one of the world’s leading car chip makers has added to problems for automakers who have already cut production due to a semiconductor shortage.
Friday’s fire left a swath of charred equipment in the plant 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 major automakers – Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. – all fell more than 3% on Monday, worse than the overall market, while shares of Renesas fell 4.9%.
Renesas said heat from an electrical problem inside a single piece of equipment caused the fire and contaminated cleanrooms needed for semiconductor manufacturing. He said two-thirds of the chips made at the plant affected by the fire were automotive chips.
Renesas chief executive Hidetoshi Shibata said on Sunday that the impact on global chip supplies would be significant. Mariko Semetko, credit analyst at Moody’s Japan, said the fire is likely to dampen the recovery in global auto production this year, while automakers have said they are still assessing the impact.
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