Toyota and semiconducter suppliers suspend operations following earthquake in Japan

Toyota and other semiconductor-using companies are suspending operations in Japan after a massive earthquake hit the country this week. 

“Due to the parts shortage resulting from suppliers affected by the earthquakes, additional adjustments will be made to production operations in some plants in Japan,” Toyota announced on Friday. 

The production lines will be down for three weeks.

A Tokyo-based semiconductor supplier, Renesas, is attempting to get its three plants back to volume production seen before the earthquake hit by Wednesday, CNBC reported. 

The plants were close to the epicenter of the 7.3-magnitude earthquake, the company said.

Renesas is responsible for almost a third of the microcontroller chips that are used in cars around the world.

One Japanese automobile company, Subaru Corporation, said they have to cut production for the next few days due supply issues caused by the earthquake, according to CNBC.

“Subaru Corporation will temporarily suspend production at its automobile manufacturing facilities due to interruptions in the supply of certain parts, as operations of the supplier factories for those parts have been affected by the earthquake,” Subaru said.

The natural disaster and suspension of operations come as the globe has already been suffering from a semiconductor shortage for months. 

The problem will continue to hit automobile companies who’ve struggled with their supply chains throughout the pandemic.