Battle between Netherlands and China over chipmaker Nexperia reaches Honda in Alliston
Posted October 24, 2025
The Netherlands and China are locked in a dispute over control of the Dutch based but Chinese owned chipmaker Nexperia, forcing its automaker customers, including Honda in Alliston, to scale back production at factories, due to impending semiconductor supply shortages if the issues aren't resolved.
According to published reports out of Europe, "Last week’s decision by the Dutch government to take control of the Chinese-owned chipmaker, which is based in the Netherlands, has sent shock waves across the car industry, which is already facing potential shortages of products such as magnets amid China’s latest restrictions on rare earths exports.
The Hague said at the time that it was taking control of Nexperia to safeguard Europe’s supply of semiconductors and that it had invoked a cold-war era law to take effective control of the company following concerns raised by the US about the Chinese owner, Wingtech.
That decision caused an immediate rift with Beijing, which banned all exports from the chipmaker, escalating the already tense relations between China and the US before a potential meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping next week in Korea.
The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, whose members include Nissan, Toyota, Honda and Mazda, said on Thursday it had received a warning from Nexperia that chips could now be in short supply, potentially holding up manufacturing.
“The chips manufactured by the affected manufacturers are important parts used in electronic control units, etc, and we recognise that this incident will have a serious impact on the global production of our member companies,” the association said. “We hope that the countries involved will come to a prompt and practical solution.”
This morning (Oct. 24) HCM General Manager Shuji Onizawa, posted a notice to all its associates, "Honda is experiencing a supply chain disruption involving critical semiconductor chips, stemming from a geopolitical dispute impacting the global auto industry.
This is a fluid issue that is impacting different models in various ways and, as a result, production will be reduced.
As with some past challenge, we will need to maintain flexibility and we are actively working across producting, purchasing and sales to ensure that we meet the needs of our customers.
For HCM, NPNP (No pay, no penalty) will begin the week of October 27 with reduced production Mon-Wed. and Thurs-Fri NPNP. The same amount of production shaving is expected for the week of November 3.
"Once the daily production target has been met, HCM will suspend production operations."
