Nissan Motor will adjust production at some of the plants by next month as the global chip shortage continue, three sources with understanding of the plan informed Reuters.
The automaker will be temporarily stopping production at a factory in Tochigi, eastern Japan, for a total of three days in July, the sources said.
It will idle its plant located in Kyushu, southern Japan for two days next month, they said, adding that the factory will cancel the night shift too.
Another Kyushu plant is set to operate only on daytime shift work for a particular period in the next month.
Nissan’s Oppama plant, another regional assembly plant located in Kanagawa, has been adjusting production since mid-May by operating without a night shift and will keep doing so in July.
“Due to the worldwide chip shortage, Nissan is adjusting production and is taking necessary actions to ensure recovery,” a Nissan spokesperson said, without describing further.
Nissan, like other automakers, has been making production adjustments due to a worldwide chip supply crunch. The automaker has said the shortage will probably affect the production of 500,000 vehicles in 2021.
CEO Makoto Uchida informed shareholders at the annual general meeting earlier on Tuesday that the automaker was reducing the negative impact of the chip shortage.
He added that Nissan was attempting to make up for the production loss within the financial year and to take action to make sure that there will be stability in its supply of components.
The chip shortage, which has hit automakers worldwide, emerges from a confluence of factors as automakers, which closed plants for two months during the coronavirus pandemic last year, rival against the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip supplies. A factory fire suffered by Japanese chipmaker Renesas this year is also cited as a reason behind the chip shortage.
