Factory fire adds to computer chip supply crisis
One of the car industry’s biggest computer chip suppliers has warned that a major fire at one of its factories in Japan could cause a massive impact on its ability to fulfill orders. The fire was caused by a plating tank that caught fire, as a result of an electrical overcurrent, whose cause is still being investigated.
The incident comes at a time when supplies of chips to the auto industry were already suffering from shortages. Shares in the semiconductors firm Renesas fell, along with its clients Toyota, Nissan and Honda. Volkswagen has also said chip scarcity may last until the fall. Renesas said it has around a one-month stockpile of chips to continue fulfilling automakers’ orders, so the impact to car production will not be immediate. But it does come at a time of crisis.
At the start of the pandemic, car makers cut orders for the components due to a slump in vehicle sales. When the market rebounded towards the end of 2020, it was hard to find supplies because other consumer electronics makers had stepped in with orders of their own to meet higher than normal demand because of lockdowns. In February this year, freezing weather in Texas closed chip-making plants, and a drought in Taiwan is threatening production there too. Many car manufacturers have slowed down or temporarily halted production at some of their plants. It has been estimated they face losing more than $60 billion of sales as a result.
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Suez canal blocked by large container ship
A container ship has run aground in the Suez canal after being blown off course by a gust of wind, which caused a huge traffic jam of vessels at either end of the vital international trade artery. The 220,000-ton, 400 meter long Ever Given – a so-called ‘mega ship’ – became stuck near the southern end of the canal. Several attempts to refloat it have failed.
Reports speculated it had lost power, but it had ran aground after a suspected gust of wind hit it. The Ever Given is one of a new category of ships called ultra large container ships (ULCS), some of which were even too big for the Panama canal that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The ship is carrying hundreds of containers bound for Rotterdam from China. The Suez canal is one of the most important waterways in the world, and links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and shipping lanes to Asia. The canal can handle dozens of giant container ships each day, so any lengthy holdup can cause serious delays.
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Global shipping could be hit due to lack of vaccine access for seafarers
The International Chamber of Shipping warns shipowners they may be forced to cancel voyages, should their crew remain unvaccinated. However, some 900,000 seafarers are from developing nations where vaccines may not be available until 2024.
The lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines for maritime crews will expose the global shipping industry to a legal minefield and leave global supply chains vulnerable. ICS warns that vaccinations could soon become a requirement for work at sea, as countries begin to insist all crew members be vaccinated as a pre-condition of entering their ports.
The ICS is reaching out to government maritime officials around the world for vaccination solutions, one of which would be to establish vaccine hubs across key international ports.
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