Automotive chipmaker Renesas Electronics has announced a planned resumption of at least partial production from Friday (22 April) at its earthquake-hit Kumamoto plant in southern Japan.
According to Reuters, Renesas, which controls almost 40% of the global market for microcontroller chips used in vehicles, also said it aimed to fully resume operations at the plant as early as possible. The Kumamoto plant has been offline since a series of earthquakes in southern Japan last week measuring up to 7.3 magnitude.
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The company has confirmed damage to some equipment at the plant, but the extent of the damage was smaller than the aftermath of a big 2011 quake that halted its plants in northeastern Japan, a spokeswoman told Reuters earlier this week.
The 2011 quake lead to months of delays to the global supply chain for major automakers.
Overseas automakers account for about 40% of its automobile-related chip sales, while domestic automakers account for roughly 60%, the company told Reuters.
