According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, at 23:8 local time on February 13th, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurred in the Tohoku region of Japan. In the early morning of the 14th, the Japan Meteorological Agency revised the time of the earthquake from the originally announced local time 23:08 on the 13th to 23:07, the magnitude was revised from 7.1 to 7.3, and the focal depth was revised from 60 kilometers to 55. Kilometers.
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The earthquake also affected local nuclear power plants and industries. According to media reports, the cooling water used to store nuclear fuel in Unit 1 of the Fukushima No. 2 Nuclear Power Plant was slightly affected. leakage. In addition, the local auto industry has also suffered.
Recently, according to media reports, the impact of the strong earthquake in Japan last Saturday is still continuing. Toyota Motor said on Tuesday that 14 production lines in Japan will be suspended due to the earthquake in northeastern Japan, and some Toyota suppliers will be affected by the earthquake.
The production lines involved in the suspension of production are distributed in 9 factories in Japan. The earliest factory started to stop production on the 17th of this month, and the longest suspension period is 4 days. This also means that half of Toyota's production lines in Japan will be affected in the short term.
Toyota has 15 vehicle plants and 28 production lines in Japan. The shutdown affects 14 production lines and Toyota RAV4, C-HR and Harrier models; Lexus LS, IS sedan, RC, LC, LX, NX, UX Models such as RX and RX are also affected. Toyota spokesman Shiori Hashimoto said that it is not semiconductors that are affected this time.
To make matters worse, at present, the global automotive industry is facing a shortage of automotive chips, and a key semiconductor factory in Japan is also reducing production due to the earthquake.
Because there is Renesas Electronics, one of the top ten semiconductor companies in the world, officially confirmed that there were no casualties in the offices and branches. The buildings and public facilities of the factories near the epicenter were not damaged , including the Naka Factory (Ibaraki Prefecture), Yonezawa Factory (Yamagata Prefecture) and Takasaki Factory (Gunma Prefecture).
The Yonezawa Plant and Takasaki Plant are continuing to operate.As for the plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, there was a temporary power outage. After that, the power was restored and the equipment was running again. However, for safety reasons, Renesas Electronics announced the temporary suspension of production at the Ibaraki plant.
The good news is that Renesas Electronics started to restart factory production today, but it will take another week for production to fully recover.
Now the global semiconductor industry is out of stock, especially for automotive chips. Renesas is also a global automotive electronics and chip supplier. This accident makes the automotive industry’s core shortage problem even more difficult.
On February 17, the data company IHS Markit said on Tuesday that the shortage of chips may lead to a reduction in global production of nearly 1 million light vehicles in the first quarter, a significant increase from previous estimates. The company estimated on February 3 that, as of March 30, chip supply problems will lead to a reduction of 672,000 vehicles worldwide.
When Japan was hit by the earthquake, the United States on the other side of the ocean was experiencing severe cold waves.
Since last week, the historic cold current caused by the polar vortex has hit large areas of the central and southern United States, bringing record-breaking extreme low temperatures, and millions of people have suffered power outages and no heating. , Many states declared a state of emergency.
Power cuts, icing, and natural gas shortages brought about by the cold wave have also led to the closure of many auto manufacturing plants in the central and southern parts of the United States. General Motors, Ford, Nissan and Toyota have all announced plans to reduce or suspend production.
GM's factories in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Texas have cancelled shifts. These factories produce GM's most profitable pickup and SUV models, including Chevrolet Silverado and Escalade.
In order to save natural gas, Ford announced the suspension of production at its Kansas City assembly plant until February 21. The F-150 pickup truck produced here is Ford's best-selling model. Ford's plants in Michigan, Ohio and Mexico also suspended operations. In addition, Toyota, Honda and Jeep have also reduced shifts in some factories.
The Japanese earthquake has highlighted the chip problem in the automotive industry. The problem of reduced car sales caused by the shortage of car chips may be the most direct impact of the increase in car prices for consumers.
The current problems caused by chip shortages are only the tip of the iceberg, and they are still expanding. Even Tesla, which has always promoted self-developed chips, has not been able to escape, and many chip industry organizations have also publicly stated that there is a shortage of chips. It is a big problem that will not be solved in a short time, and it is very likely to last until the second half of 2021. From this point of view, the price of cars in 2021 may still increase.
If you plan to buy a car, you must be as early as possible! Because car prices are likely to be higher day by day. It is expected that the chip tension will not be relieved until the second half of the year!
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