Renesas: Microcontroller supply to run out in June

Renesas Electronics Corp., a major semiconductor maker, will have depleted the entire stock of microcontrollers at its quake-damaged Naka plant in Ibaraki Prefecture by the end of the month, the company's president said.

Renesas controls about a 40-percent share of the international market for microcontrollers used in automobile engines. The company is also a leading maker of other microcontrollers used in a variety of electric appliances and other products. The expected shortage will affect production in a wide range of industries starting in June.

"We will be able to respond to demand in May with stocks from our pre-earthquake production, but it is inevitable that supplies from the Naka plant will run short in June and thereafter," Renesas President Yasushi Akao said at a news conference May 18.

Operations at the Naka plant in Hitachinaka have been suspended since the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake caused serious damage.

The factory will resume production in June, but shipments of those products will start in late August, the company said.

Renesas plans to cover the shortage by commissioning production to other factories. But Renesas expects output to be only 10 percent of pre-quake levels in June, 40 percent in July, 50 percent in August and 70 percent in September.

Full production is expected at the end of October.

The expected shortage will force automakers to drastically review their production plans.

"We are going to distribute the microcontrollers proportionally," Akao said. "It won't be unbalanced."

Akao also mentioned other bad news for Renesas.

The company posted a consolidated net loss of 115 billion yen ($1.42 billion) in fiscal 2010, due mainly to an extraordinary loss caused by the earthquake.

Revenue totaled 1.1379 trillion yen, while its operating profit was 14.5 billion yen for the year that ended in March.