By Li Panpan

World-leading semiconductor manufacturer Onsemi announced shutting down its China Global Distribution Center in Shanghai on April 18th because of the local pandemic control in a letter to its clients. JW Insights has confirmed the information. 

The following is part of the announcement released by Onsemi: 

“Onsemi continues to monitor the COVlD-19 situation around the globe, with a close eye on recent developments in the Asia-Pacific region. With the enhanced governmental lockdowns, specifically in Shanghai, our China Global Distribution Center has been forced to shut down, therefore impacting business. 

At this time, there is no change to our status, and we have not been notified of any progress on the possible release of the shutdown. Our company prioritizes the safety of our employees under all circumstances and is doing everything in its power to mitigate the impact of the limitations on our customers.

In addition to lockdowns in Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Leshan that impact our operations there, we also point out that smaller cities have begun to impose lockdowns and/or heightened restrictions for entering the city, specifically impacting external manufacturing locations. We are also closely managing disruptions from our materials, equipment, and service vendors in China. 

The team continues to focus on critical devices for our customers and are doing our utmost to ship product out in the fastest way possible. As part of that, we have initiated transfers to other Onsemi locations to relieve capacity restrictions and aid in reduced impact - such as our Distribution Centers in Singapore and Manilla. 

Despite our many efforts to work through this force majeure event, including rerouting to alternative warehouses and expedited shipping methods (i.e., NFO - Next Flight Out), we are not able to ship enough material to meet all customer needs.

We are working to solidify a plan for a further prolonged shutdown. Circumstances are changing daily, and we will monitor and adjust our approach as necessary.”

America-headquartered Onsemi is one of the world’s largest suppliers of analog ICs, logic ICs, and discrete semiconductor components. 

In recent months, strict pandemic control policies in Shanghai blocked transportation and caused many manufacturers to shut down production, which gradually affected the global supply chain. On April 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology dispatched a working group to Shanghai to take multiple measures to support the stable production of key enterprises in the city, including prioritizing a whitelist of 666 companies to resume work and production.