TOKYO, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Honda Motor said Friday that a shortage of semiconductors could affect its production in Japan, becoming the latest automaker to hit a chip chip as demand rebounds from coronavirus crisis.
“The company has begun to see some impact in the supply of parts, and to reduce the impact, we are taking steps in product mobility and size changes,” a Honda spokesman said. the company reviews product changes for each car model.
The Japanese automaker will initially reduce production by about 4,000 units this month, mainly affecting the Fit subcompact made at a plant in Suzuka, a city in Mie Prefecture, a Nikkei newspaper reported earlier Friday.
Manufacturers of electronic devices and electronics manufacturers are facing a global shortage of chips as consumer demand has been kicking back from the coronavirus pandemic, causing manufacturing delays.
A major fire at a chip plant owned by Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corp (AKM), a unit of Asahi Kasei Corp., in southern Japan in October has also damaged semiconductor supplies. While Honda’s investment stock for a semiconductor is secure until February, the company is “currently under scrutiny for supply since then, including other supplies,” the spokesman said. (Reporting by Noriyuki Hirata and Eimi Yamamitsu; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Gerry Doyle)