The data company IHS Markit said that the recent fire at Renesas’ Japanese plant and the extremely cold weather that raged in the southwestern United States in February this year will exacerbate the global automotive industry’s chip shortage.
IHS originally predicted that the global output of small cars in the first quarter would reach approximately 1.3 million units, a 30% increase compared to the 1 million output in the first quarter of last year. However, the occurrence of the above two incidents may have vanished the desire to achieve a 30% increase in production.
Renesas has produced about 30% of the micro-control units in the global market. The shutdown is a big hassle for the automotive chip market, and Renesas said it will take at least 100 days to restore the production capacity before the fire.
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In addition, due to the extremely cold weather that swept through the southwestern United States in February this year, the chip factories of many companies including Samsung, NXP, Infineon, and other companies were severely affected, and their production and sales capabilities declined significantly.
IHS said that the “chip shortage” in the global automotive industry probably began at the end of last year, mainly due to the decline in production capacity of Southeast Asian factories caused by the spread of the epidemic. Now, fire and severe cold have consumed part of the production capacity of the Japanese and American factories respectively, which is really worse for the automotive chip market.
IHS speculates that the 30% increase in global production previously predicted may be difficult to achieve, and the actual output increase can only reach about 12%. The “core shortage” phenomenon in the global automotive industry will continue and will not be relieved until the fourth quarter of this year.
House seemingly endless rain. Just last week, a giant cargo ship ran out of control and blocked the Suez Canal for 6 days. A large number of ships have been stranded and shipping has been severely blocked, further exacerbating the shortfall in demand in the global automotive chip market.
