New Chip Crisis Means Japan’s Auto Giants Aren’t in Clear Yet
- Toyota, Nissan, Honda clawed back profits over nine months
- Chip supply seen as biggest risk factor for coming 12 months
Toyota vehicles awaiting shipment in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The world’s biggest carmaker trimmed its sales forecast because of production halts.
Photographer: Toru Hanai/BloombergJapan’s top automakers emerged from a tough 2021 punctuated by a global semiconductor shortage and are forecasting profit will increase on the back of higher vehicle prices. However, a looming shortage of analog chips threatens to cloud the outlook.
While tight supplies of semiconductors are set to ease later this year, the next bottleneck is likely to come from growing demand for analog chips, which are increasingly being used in automobiles as they become electrified and autonomous. Last year’s chip crunch was mainly due to a shortage of microprocessors, the main computing chips that are used in smartphones and computers.