Japanese carmaker Subaru plans to temporarily idle and cut production at its plant in the Gunma prefecture of Japan due to the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage.
According to media reports, the company will idle all three plants in this region that include the main plant, Yajima, and Oizumi plants starting Jul 16. Together, these facilities can produce about 650,000 units per year. The company said that while the end dates have not been finalized yet, the closure was part of its plans to deal with the chip shortage at hand.
Suzuki, a peer, has also hinted at similar cutbacks in its Kosai and Sagara plants for two to seven days due to the semiconductor chip shortage. While demand for aluminum alloys in Japan weakens over this circumstance, the price of secondary ingots continues to rise in China, one of the country’s main suppliers, due to a shortage of scrap caused by the new scrap standards being introduced.