Renesas Electronics halted operations on Friday after a surge in Covid-19 infections.
Japanese semiconductor chip manufacturer Renesas Electronics Corporation resumed its operations at its Beijing chip plant on Tuesday, after halting its operations on Friday, due to rising Covid-19 infections.
The company said on Monday that it was making up for the lost output with existing stock and did not expect much of an impact from the stoppage, as mentioned in a Reuters news report.
The recent increase in Covid-19 cases in China, which have been spreading fast in Shanghai and Beijing, was boosted by China’s relaxation of strict containment measures in December. For a population with low vaccination rates among the elderly, disruption in the Chinese manufacturing hubs could prove to be potentially vexing for Japanese automakers who have many manufacturing units in China.
China has developed and produced its own vaccines, which have been shown to be less effective at protecting people against serious Covid illness and death than the mRNA vaccines used by the rest of the world. No Covid deaths have been officially reported since December 7, when restrictions were lifted and mass testing was ended, following mass protests against its zero-Covid policy.
Renesas is a leading manufacturer of automobile chips. Incorporated in 2002, the company is the world’s third-largest automotive semiconductor company and the largest microcontroller supplier. It is one of many big Japanese manufacturers to have operations in China. The Beijing plant produces semiconductors used in industrial machinery and home appliances. The company has also established its presence in the markets of analogue and mixed-signal integrated circuits, memory devices, and SoCs.
