Chipmaker Renesas has said that it will return to pre-quake supply capacity a month earlier than previously forecast.
Renesas expects its chip supply capacity to hit pre-disaster levels in late September. The outfit has restarted the factory damaged by the March 11 earthquake and has been recovering faster than initially predicted.
Renesas is a key supplier of chips that control multiple functions in cars. Its plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo, was severely damaged by the quake It has taken two months to repair the facilities and test all the equipment. It resumed operations June 1.
It will take chips produced at the plant to get to customers. Early-stage chip fabrication alone takes several weeks to a few months. Then the chips have to be sent to chip assembly and packaging.
Chips fabricated at the Naka plant reaching customers in late September will be about 35 per cent of the pre-quake levels, but the company said that could make up the missing 65 per cent by delivering some orders from its other factories
