According to Japanese media, Bunsei Kure, president and CEO of Renesas Electronics, said at a business briefing held in Tokyo recently that the shutdown time of its six Japanese factories in the semiconductor front-end process will be shortened. The factories are Naka shi factory, Takasaki factory, Shiga-ken factory, Saijo factory, Yamaguchi factory and Kawajiri factory.

Bunsei Kur pointed out that the above six factories were planned to stop on average for about one month during April-June, but due to higher-than-expected demand, the estimated downtime may be considerably reduced compared to the original plan.

Bunsei Kur said that the overall market demand for automotive and industrial robots is low, and the current capacity utilization rate is about 60%. Regarding the production situation after July, Bunsei Kur said that it has not yet decided and will judge according to the future demand situation.