Japan’s Renesas Electronics has suspended work at its Beijing chip plant because of COVID-19 infections and will keep it closed for several days.
Renesas, the world’s leading maker of automobile chips, halted the factory on Friday. The plant mostly produces semiconductors used in industrial machinery and home appliances.

The chipmaker will be able to make up for the lost output with existing stock and does not expect much of an impact from the stoppage, a spokesperson said.

Renesas, which makes around a third of all the microcontroller chips used by the world’s carmakers, is one of many big Japanese manufacturers to have operations in China. It also has a plant in the eastern city of Suzhou.