Japan's Rohm Co. Said supply shortages of key semiconductors for automobiles and industrial machinery are likely to last at least until next year, adding to grim warnings about the further impact of the global chip crisis.
The Kyoto-based chipmaker's customers include Toyota Motor CorpFord MotorAnd HMC>Honda Motor. Isao Matsumoto, the company's chief executive, said the company had been hit by a severe shortage of key materials and that its entire production line had also been affected. The company began to increase production capacity last September and plans to invest another 70 billion yen ($636 million) in the current fiscal year, but the full contribution of these investments will not be immediately apparent as production machinery takes longer to arrive, he added.
"all our production facilities have been operating at full capacity since September, but orders from customers have been overwhelmed," Matsumoto said in an interview this week. "I don't think we can fulfill all the backlog of orders next year."
The company joined its peers such as Infineon, warning that supply chain woes could last longer than previously expected. The chip has been delivered for more than 20 weeks, and the outbreak caused by novel coronavirus, a Delta variant, has complicated efforts to return to normal operations from Japan to Southeast Asia.
The shortage of raw materials and spare parts, and the superimposed congestion of trains, ships and aircraft, aggravated Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen.The plight of global carmakers has either cut production or halted production in recent weeks.