{"id":122921,"date":"2025-11-08T20:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T20:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/122921\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T20:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T20:26:07","slug":"a-crisis-at-chipmaker-nexperia-sent-automakers-scrambling-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/122921\/","title":{"rendered":"A crisis at chipmaker Nexperia sent automakers scrambling. Here’s what to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

A battle for control of a little-known chipmaker has threatened global auto production by choking off the semiconductor supply chain, though there are signs the crisis is inching toward a resolution. <\/p>\n

The power struggle over Nexperia, a Chinese-owned Dutch semiconductor maker, highlights how technology supply chain vulnerabilities are squeezing auto makers, most notably forcing Honda to halt production at a Mexican factory making its popular HR-V crossover for North American markets. It also exposes how Europe is caught in the middle of the wider geopolitical showdown between Washington and Beijing. <\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the dispute: <\/p>\n

The turmoil erupted into public view in mid-October, when the Dutch government announced it had invoked a rarely used World War II-era law<\/a> to take effective control of Nexperia weeks earlier. <\/p>\n

The Dutch ministry of economic affairs said it took action because of national security concerns. Officials said they intervened because of \u201cserious governance shortcomings\u201d at Nexperia, asserting control to prevent the loss of crucial tech know-how that could threaten Europe’s economic security.<\/p>\n

Nexperia\u2019s Chinese owner Wingtech Technology, a partially state-owned company, is at the heart of the dispute. Amid the boardroom battle, a Dutch court granted the ministry’s request to oust Nexperia’s Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng. American officials told the Dutch government he would have to be replaced to avoid trade restrictions, according to a court filing. <\/p>\n

Nexperia makes simple semiconductors such as switches and logic chips. The auto industry \u2014 one of Nexperia’s biggest markets \u2014 uses its chips for numerous functions, such as adaptive LED headlight controllers, electric vehicle battery management systems and anti-lock brakes. <\/p>\n

Headquartered in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, Nexperia was spun off from Philips Semiconductors two decades ago. It was eventually purchased by China’s Wingtech Technology in 2018 for $3.6 billion.<\/p>\n

Nexperia has wafer fabrication plants in Britain and Germany. It operates an assembly and testing center in China’s southern manufacturing heartland of Guangdong \u2014 which accounts for around 70% of its end-product capacity \u2014 and similar centers in the Philippines and Malaysia. <\/p>\n

The dispute is part of the broader struggle between the U.S. and China over tech supremacy, which has left Europe caught in the middle.<\/p>\n

It stems from Washington\u2019s decision late last year to place Wingtech on its \u201centity list,” which subjects companies to export controls because of national security risks. In late September, the U.S. expanded that list to Wingtech\u2019s subsidiaries, including Nexperia, pressuring allies to follow suit.<\/p>\n

After the Dutch government asserted control of Nexperia, Beijing responded soon after, blocking the export of Nexperia chips from its assembly plant in the Chinese city of Dongguan. It blamed the Netherlands for \u201cturmoil and chaos\u201d in the chip supply chain. <\/p>\n

There were signs of hope following last month’s high-profile meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, when the White House said Beijing would ease the export ban as part of a U.S.-China trade truce.<\/p>\n

Despite Beijing also confirming exports would be allowed to resume, Nexperia\u2019s Chinese unit said headquarters suspended shipments of wafers<\/a> used to make chips to its Chinese factory, potentially crimping its ability to deliver finished products.<\/p>\n

Nexperia\u2019s head office hit back in a statement Wednesday, saying the Chinese unit refused to pay for the wafers and accused it of \u201cignoring the lawful instructions” from its global management team. The company said it can\u2019t guarantee the quality of any chips delivered from its China plant since Oct. 13. <\/p>\n

Modern automobiles rely on so-called discrete chips made by companies like Nexperia, which, unlike more advanced microprocessors, perform a single function. Leaders at big carmakers spelled out their worries in the latest round of earnings calls, saying that finding a replacement for Nexperia at scale in the short term will be difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Nexperia makes up only about 5% of the automotive silicon discrete market in term of revenue, its share is much higher in terms of discrete chip volume,\u201d S&P Global Mobility analysts wrote in a recent note.<\/p>\n

Nexperia\u2019s parts are widely used across vehicle systems \u2014 often dozens to hundreds per vehicle \u2014 and carmakers in North America, Japan and South Korea are at risk, they added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an industrywide issue. A quick breakthrough is really necessary to avoid fourth quarter production losses for the entire industry,\u201d Ford CEO Jim Farley said.<\/p>\n

General Motors CEO Mary Barra warned that production could be hit. The company has \u201cteams working around the clock with our supply chain partners to minimize possible disruptions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa told CNBC that the company is setting aside a 25 billion yen ($163 million) provision for supply risks, in part to \u201cabsorb\u201d the impact from the Nexperia crisis on production.<\/p>\n

Mercedes-Benz is \u201cscurrying around the world to look for alternatives,\u201d CEO Ola Kallenius said. The European Automobile Manufacturers\u2019 Association said members including BMW, Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo have been forced to use their reserve stockpiles of chips and warned of assembly line stoppages if they run out. <\/p>\n

The European Union\u2019s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, on Saturday noted \u201cencouraging progress,” writing on X that China’s Commerce Ministry had confirmed \u201cfurther simplification\u201d of export procedures for Nexperia chips to the EU and global customers. <\/p>\n

In Beijing, the Commerce Ministry also said Saturday that it agreed to a Dutch request to send representatives to China for “consultations.” <\/p>\n

But it noted that the Netherlands had not taken any concrete actions yet to restore the global semiconductor supply chain since the Dutch government said days earlier it would take \u201cappropriate steps on our part where necessary.” <\/p>\n

Economics Affairs Minister Vincent Karremans had said in that statement that “the Netherlands trusts that the supply of chips from China to Europe and the rest of the world will reach Nexperia\u2019s customers over the coming days.\u201d <\/p>\n

Honda has received word that Nexperia’s shipments from China have resumed, Executive Vice President Noriya Kaihara told reporters Friday. He said the Japanese automaker expects to resume production during the week of Nov. 21 at its plant in Celaya, Mexico, which can make up to 200,000 vehicles a year. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A battle for control of a little-known chipmaker has threatened global auto production by choking off the semiconductor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[77884,127,20394,114,122,85,46,77883,125,31399,126],"class_list":{"0":"post-122921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-77884","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-auto-industry","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-production-facilities","16":"tag-technology","17":"tag-transportation-and-shipping","18":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}