AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/06 Report--

Automotive semiconductor chips continue to affect the automotive industry! Japanese carmaker Subaru said recently that production at its plant in Yashima will be suspended from April 10 to 27 due to a shortage of chips, which will affect production of 10,000 vehicles.

Subaru said in a statement that all production lines at the Yashima plant in Gunma prefecture would be restarted from May 10, and that the impact of the shutdown on the group's financial performance was uncertain. Subaru said some operations would resume on April 21, while April 28 to May 9 would be the planned holiday break for the plant. Therefore, the official restart of the production line is scheduled for May 10. Subaru stressed that the shutdown had nothing to do with the previous fire at the Renesas electronics factory.

Suzuki, another Japanese carmaker, also announced that it would suspend production at its two plants in Shizuoka Prefecture prefecture because of a shortage of chips. The suspension of production is one of the three production lines in the Sagara plant and the Kosai plant. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time Suzuki has announced a suspension of production because of chip supply problems. Suzuki said it has no plans to cut production for the time being and will maintain plant operations during the holidays to make up for production losses.

In addition to the above two car companies, South Korea's Hyundai Motor also plans to suspend production at its Yashan No. 3 plant for three days from April 7 to April 9 and operate only half of its production line from April 12 to April 15. It is said that Hyundai is striving to ensure the supply of power control units, which control power generation and drive motors. In addition, production at Ulsan's third plant, which makes Avante cars, may also be suspended on April 10th.

The top 10 suppliers of automotive specification-grade chips in the world are Infineon, NXP, Renesa Electronics, Texas Instruments, Italian, Bosch, on Semet, Roma half, Toshiba and Yadno, accounting for 80% of the global share. Due to the high concentration of the market, if there is force majeure, it will lead to the rupture of the global supply chain. It only intensified after 2021, coupled with the earthquake in Japan, the fire at the Renesas electronics factory and the cold wave in North America, which further aggravated the chip crisis, which was originally in shortage, and affected the supply of other auto parts suppliers. Renesa said the fire on March 19 shut down the 12-inch factory that makes advanced products, and the inventory of automotive chips will run out in late April, and the supply of chips is expected to stop by the end of April, according to the Nikkei News.

"panic" has gradually become the true writing of this year's automobile market. From the announcement of the reduction of positions by Volkswagen in December 2020 to the construction and suspension of production in various production bases of overseas car companies, they all herald the crisis of this chip war. According to incomplete statistics, at present, more than ten automakers around the world have announced production cuts or suspensions due to chip outages, including Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford, Subaru, Daimler and other automakers will face revenue losses while cutting car production. According to relevant statistics, the chip shortage is expected to cause losses of US $14 billion in the first quarter of this year and US $61 billion for the whole year.

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