TOKYO - Renesas Electronics Corp, a major supplier of automotive semiconductors, said on Monday it plans to restore output lost to a fire by end-May after restarting production, relying on other plants to make up for any shortfall.

Renesas restarted production on the 300mm chip line at its Naka plant northeast of Tokyo on Saturday, four weeks after a fire caused by an electricity overload burned an area of 600 square meters (6,458 square feet), destroyed 23 machines and filled the sensitive clean room with smoke and soot.

A return to full output at the plant will still take around 70 more days, Renesas Chief Executive Officer Hidetoshi Shibata said during an online press conference.

Renesas commands nearly a third of the global market share for microcontroller chips used in cars.

  - Reuters