Production halted at Renesas' Kawashiri Factory
Due to heavy rain caused by Typhoon Aere in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, lightning hit a power line feeding into Renesas Group’s Kawashiri Factory on July 5, 5:43 a.m. JST.
This resulted in an instantaneous voltage drop, temporarily halting production equipment at the factory, Renesas reports in a company update from July 6th.
The voltage drop this time lasted longer than any incident that occurred in the past ten years and any estimation that the company had made, leading to a temporary suspension of approximately 90% of the production equipment. On the other hand, the clean room has maintained its function even after the instantaneous voltage drop.
Renesas says it has been implementing contingency measures for instantaneous voltage drops, such as installing Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS).
"We are moving forward to recover a maximum of approximately 2 weeks’ worth of production, which the amount of ruined work-in-process and losses due to halted production account for."
Restarting of production equipment is in progress, and some of the production process has resumed operation on July 6 JST. The company expect to reach full production capacity (wafer input base) equivalent to before the instantaneous voltage drop on July 11 JST.
Some damage is expected to be made to the work-in-process from the instantaneous voltage drop.
Earthquake in Kumamoto District of Kumamoto Prefecture on Renesas Operation
A seismic intensity 5 lower earthquake struck the Kyushu region of Japan on June 26 at 9:44 p.m. JST, with the Kumamoto District of Kumamoto Prefecture as the epicenter, Renesas reported.
While Renesas’ Kawashiri Factory (Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture) and Nishiki Factory (Nishiki Town, Kumamoto Prefecture) are located near the epicenter, no damage has been made to the buildings, utility and manufacturing equipment of the factories, and both factories continued their operations. Some equipment halted operation at the Kawashiri Factory.
Additionally, it has been confirmed that no impact has been made on Renesas’ overall supply chain including suppliers and partner companies from this earthquake.
