Photo/Illutration Workers assemble a Lexus car at Toyota Motor Corp.’s Fukuoka plant. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The unyielding shortage of semiconductors dealt a blow to new vehicle production by Japanese automakers in the first half of the fiscal year, new data shows.

The eight major automakers announced their latest global production figures on Oct. 28, which show they are still far from a full recovery. The total, 10.867 million cars, is a 21-percent decrease from the first half of fiscal 2019 before the novel coronavirus pandemic caused havoc in production across all industrial sectors.

On the upside, the figure for the six-month period was an increase of 11 percent over the same period in 2020, when production stopped due to the pandemic.

Still, the delays in delivering car parts from Southeast Asia in September led to a major cut in global production among Japanese automakers. The 1.559 million cars produced equates to a 36-percent drop from September 2020.

While there are signs that the supply crunch for parts from Southeast Asia is improving, the semiconductor shortage is still seriously hampering auto production.

Toyota Motor Corp. reduced production from its initial plans by 350,000 units in September and is expected to reduce production by a further 330,000 units in October. The reduction in November will be between 100,000 and 150,000 units.

Even with the cut, production in November is expected to reach record levels of about 850,000 to 900,000 cars.

Honda Motor Co. reduced domestic production in August and September by about 60 percent over initial plans. The reduction is expected to be about 10 percent for the first half of November.

And given that semiconductors are needed to make a wide range of consumer products, supply has been unable to catch up with demand. The difficulties in setting up new chip plants also makes it difficult to predict when the shortage will end.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, is planning to build a factory in Kumamoto Prefecture. The government is expected to provide about 500 billion yen ($4.4 billion) to support the project, but plant operations are not expected to begin until after 2024.

Hiroki Totoki, executive deputy president of Sony Group Corp., announced the company’s six-month earnings on Oct. 29 and said the company plans to cooperate with TSMC in constructing the Kumamoto plant.

Sony Group is also feeling the supply squeeze and has been forced to restrict production of its latest video game console, the PlayStation 5.

Renesas Electronics Corp. has a roughly 20-percent share of the microcontroller market. The component is used to control the functions of a car, such as steering and braking.

Hidetoshi Shibata, president and CEO of Renesas Electronics, admitted at an Oct. 28 news conference that the company was facing difficulties in supplying the part.

(This article was written by Junichi Kamiyama, Hiroki Ito and Yasuro Suzuki.)

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