Sony Corp. is working around the clock to manufacture its in-demand image sensors, but even a 24-hour operation hasn't been enough.
For the second straight year, the company will run its chip factories constantly through the holidays to try and keep up with demand for sensors used in mobile phone cameras, according to Terushi Shimizu, the head of Sony's semiconductor unit. The electronics giant is more than doubling its capital spending on the business to ¥280 billion ($2.6 billion) this fiscal year and is also building a new plant in Nagasaki that will come online in April 2021.
"Judging by the way things are going, even after all that investment in expanding capacity, it might still not be enough," Shimizu said in an interview at the company's Tokyo headquarters. "We are having to apologize to customers because we just can't make enough."