Renesas Electronics plans to increase automotive MCU production capacity by more than 50% by 2023

Recently, Renesas Electronics stated at a business briefing that it plans to increase its automotive MCU production capacity by more than 50% by 2023 (compared to 2021). At the same time, Renesas Electronics will increase its equipment investment, which is expected to exceed 80 billion yen by 2021 and around 60 billion yen by 2022. The company's current equipment investment is about 20 billion yen.

Renesas Electronics plans to increase the production capacity of automotive MCUs by 50% starting in 2021. If the output of high-end MCUs is converted to 8-inch wafers, the monthly production capacity will expand 1.5 times to about 40,000 pieces. This part of the production capacity mainly depends on the wafer foundry production line; as for the output of low-end MCUs, it is planned to increase to 30,000 pieces per month, an increase of 70% over the current level. This part of the production capacity will mainly be met by increasing the production capacity of Renesas' own factories.

The problem of automotive chip shortage will continue. Since the end of June, Renesas's backlog of orders for automobiles has increased by about 30%. In early September, the company said it would make bold investments to increase production capacity in the next three years, which further clarified its previous expansion plan. With strong market demand, Renesas has raised its long-term target for operating profit margin from 20% to 25-30%.