Fire at Automotive Semiconductor Factory: Japan's Renesas Fully Restores Production Capacity

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] Renesas Technology, a major Japanese semiconductor company, has fully restored the production capacity of its Naka (那珂) plant, where a fire occurred in March this year.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 26th, the company has completed recovery work from the fire damage at its Naka plant in Ibaraki (茨城) Prefecture, which produces automotive semiconductors.

At the Naka plant, a fire broke out in the early morning of March 19 this year in the 'N3 Building,' one of two buildings, which mainly produces microcontroller semiconductors that control vehicle driving. Approximately 600㎡, about 5% of the cleanroom where the fire started, was destroyed, causing significant impact such as production cuts in the automotive industry.

Renesas, the world's third-largest automotive semiconductor manufacturer, launched emergency recovery work, partially resumed production in mid-April, and initially set a goal to fully restore production capacity by May.

Originally, Renesas aimed to fully restore production capacity by May, but due to delays in replacing 23 manufacturing devices, the recovery to pre-fire production levels was achieved later than expected.

Even after the full normalization of the Naka plant, Renesas is reportedly planning to continue alternative production outsourced to its Ehime (愛媛) Prefecture plant and Taiwanese companies, considering the ongoing supply shortage in the global automotive semiconductor market.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.