Japanese automaker shares fell Monday after a fire unexpectedly halted one of chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp.’s largest plants, exacerbating a growing global shortage of automotive semiconductors.
Renesas slid as much as 5.4%, while customers from Toyota Motor Corp. to Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. also fell in early trading. One of the biggest suppliers of car chips, Renesas was forced to halt a Japanese plant Friday after a fire broke out in one of its clean rooms, critical areas designed to keep impurities from contaminating semiconductors.
Toyota said Monday it’s trying to gauge the fallout from that unexpected halt, which could ripple across an industry already struggling to keep assembly lines operating during a severe shortage of chips. The Renesas fire will likely worsen a crunch that stemmed from booming demand for home and work gadgets during the pandemic, estimated earlier this year to cost global automakers about $61 billion in lost sales in 2021.
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