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A 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurred in the waters near Fukushima on the 16th.
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Koichi Hagida said,
Some of the damaged thermal power plants may not be able to resume normal operations for weeks or even months.
"I'm worried that there could be the same intraplate earthquake as a week ago, and if an earthquake occurs at a shallower part of the plate boundary, it may be accompanied by a tsunami and needs attention."
A week after the strong earthquake in the waters off Fukushima, Japan, Japanese earthquake expert and professor Tohoku University Shinji Toda analyzed the area around the earthquake's epicenter and made the above statement.
Following the 7.4-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale in the waters off Fukushima Prefecture on March 16, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Denso, Renesas, and a number of automotive, parts, and chip companies in and around the area announced the suspension of production, and the impact is also expanding.
Industry analysts told China Automotive Pictorial: "If there are still aftershocks or tsunamis in Japan, there will undoubtedly be an adverse impact on the auto industry in China and even the world." ”
The strong earthquake has caused many car companies to stop production
The Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) reported that as of now, the March 16 earthquake has killed three people and injured more than 200 others. Repairs to the Tohoku Shinkansen and several thermal power stations damaged in the earthquake will take time, and 992 households in Fukushima Prefecture remain out of water. In addition, according to guangming network reports, eastern Taiwan last night 8 earthquakes in succession, the largest magnitude of 6.6.
Shinji Toda analyzed the area around the earthquake's epicenter and found that Fukushima Prefecture still had geological deformation caused by the March 11 earthquake 11 years ago, which could lead to earthquakes inside the plate. If an earthquake occurs at a shallower point in the boundary of the plate, it may be accompanied by a tsunami.
The strong earthquake also caused damage to Unit 6 of the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Hirano Thermal Power Plant in the prefecture, and has been out of service ever since. The Japanese government expects that the power supply surplus of 1 capital and 8 prefectures, including Tokyo, in TEPCO's jurisdiction, that is, the "power reserve rate", may be significantly lower than the minimum to maintain a stable supply of electricity. Failure to secure power supply can lead to large-scale power outages.
After the Earthquake on March 16, the global automotive industry encountered new challenges. Some plants of toyota, Nissan, denso and other automakers and parts suppliers in Japan were affected.
Toyota, for example, has 14 plants and 28 production lines in Japan. Toyota first suspended operations at three plants and lost 20,000 vehicles. Subaru Motor of Japan said on the 18th that the company will temporarily stop production for 2 days at 3 factories in Japan.
Distribution of Production Facilities in the Japanese Automotive Industry (as of 2019)
Vehicle companies are also exacerbated by the discontinuation of parts suppliers, such as Denso Corporation of Japan, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and renesas Electronics, a supplier of automotive chips. Renesas Electronics suspended production at three Japanese plants last week due to the earthquake, two of which did not resume production until the 22nd, and are currently confirming the damage to the product.
Subsequently, Toyota was forced to expand the scope of production suspension. Toyota claims that 18 production lines at Toyota's 11 plants in Japan will be suspended this week due to a shortage of parts from suppliers, and most of them will be suspended for three days.
Chip supply or tighter
The Japanese automotive industry plays an important role in the world, and both automakers, parts groups, and semiconductor companies have a place in related fields.
In the 1980s, Japan established the strategy of "technology nation-building", and the Japanese government listed electronic technology, biotechnology and new material technology as the country's three pillar industrial technologies.
As a result, Japan has a large-scale production of semiconductors, and chip manufacturers have a huge industrial ecosystem around which they can supply parts and manufacturing equipment. At present, Japan still provides more than 50% of the world's important semiconductor materials and more than 40% of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
The mainland semiconductor materials enterprises supply less than 6 inches, and a small number of enterprises have successively laid out 8-inch and 12-inch production lines, with external dependence of more than 90%.
Northeast Japan is one of the important production bases for the Japanese semiconductor industry, and it was in the northeast of Japan that the earthquake occurred, and semiconductor manufacturers such as Shin-Etsu Chemical, SUMCO, Renesas Electronics, Kiho, Sony, and Murata Manufacturing have factories here.
In terms of semiconductor materials, Japanese companies Shin-Etsu Chemical and SUMCO together hold about 60% of the global silicon wafer market, and Shingoe Chemical's two plants in Fukushima have a combined production capacity of about 25% of the global wafer capacity.
Japanese companies such as Tokyo Yinghua, JSR, and Sumitomo Chemical control 90% of the world's semiconductor photoresist market share, while Toppan is the world's largest manufacturer of reticles, with a market share of more than 30%.
Taking automotive-grade chips as an example, Renesas currently ranks third in the global automotive-grade chip market share, controlling nearly one-third of the world's automotive microcontroller chip market share.
According to reports, world automobile production decreased by 1.6 million units from April to June last year due to the shortage of chips caused by the Renesas Electronics fire in 2021.
Industry analysts said that the impression brought by the epidemic superimposed on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the supply of automotive chips is already in short supply, and if the earthquake or tsunami causes the production of such chip companies, the impact on China's automotive industry will be very huge.
It is worth mentioning that Toyota Motor motor said last week that it will reduce the production of its Japanese factory by 20% in April, May and June due to the shortage of components, including chips, by suppliers.
AFS data shows that Japan has lost about 171,400 vehicles so far in 2022 because of the chip shortage, second only to the 205,800 vehicles in the United States.