Renesas fire makes automotive chips more scarce

On March 21, semiconductor giant Renesas Electronics held a press conference regarding the Naka factory which was currently shut down due to a fire. President Hidetoshi Shibata apologized to neighboring residents, customers, and partners, and said: "We will make every effort to resume production within one month. There are also some uncertainties in some aspects, which means there is a possibility of delays." Two-thirds of the production projects affected by the fire are automotive chips, which are in short supply worldwide. It will take about a month to resume production, which is likely to affect the production of automobile manufacturers. 

In a statement, Renesas pointed out that the fire broke out at the Ibaraki factory at 2:47 a.m. local time on March 19. The fire broke out in the N3 building within the factory area. The fire was not extinguished until 8:12 a.m. on March 20.

After investigation, local police and firefighters initially believed that the fire was caused by excessive current in the electroplating equipment on the first floor of the N3 building. Because the heat resistance of the equipment shell and the electroplating tank is relatively low, if the current is too large, there will be a risk of fire. However, the cause of the excessive current has not yet been determined.

According to reports, the pure water supply device, air conditioning device, and electroplating tank in the factory were damaged after the fire. The fire area is about 600 square meters, and the first floor factory area is about 12,000 square meters. The fire affected about 5% of the area; about 11 machines were lost in the field, accounting for 2% of the 12-inch machines. The losses on the production line are still being confirmed, and it is estimated that it will take a week.

As for the factory's expected recovery progress, Renesas pointed out that N2 (8-inch factory) is operating normally, and N3 (12-inch factory) is currently stopped. The current priority is to clean the clean room and move in new machines, with the goal of resuming work in one month. Although the second floor was not damaged, it operates on the same system as the first floor, so production has to be stopped.

For the automotive industry, the biggest concern is whether there are other alternative production methods. In this regard, Renesas pointed out in a statement that currently two-thirds of the technologies of the N3 plant can support production with the wafer fab, but now that semiconductor production capacity is tight, it is not easy to transfer all of them immediately, but it will try its best to communicate and coordinate with the wafer fab.

Renesas Electronics has a 20% global market share in MCUs and is the world's second largest manufacturer. As for how much of the N3 plant's revenue will be affected by the fire, Renesas pointed out that the current monthly revenue of the N3 plant is about 17 billion yen, and how much of the revenue will be affected by the fire is still being confirmed.