TOKYO -- Japan's Renesas Electronics reports a 96% jump in group net profit on the year for the January-September period, propelled by a strong performance from its automotive chips.

Earnings reached 75.4 billion yen ($662 million), the chipmaker said Thursday. This marks the highest profit ever for the nine-month period, although past results were reported under different accounting standards.

A key supplier to Toyota Motor and other automakers, Renesas has been closely watched during the global chip shortage and expects sales to remain strong into 2022.

"Demand will continue to grow steadily until the first half of next year, mainly in the automotive and industrial sectors," CEO Hidetoshi Shibata said.

Renesas also announced its acquisition of Israeli chipmaker Celeno Communications for around $315 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. Acquiring it will allow Renesas "to manufacture and supply chips for communications," Shibata said.

Renesas' revenue grew 30% on the year to 679.9 billion yen, the company said. Sales in the automotive business, which includes key products like microcontrollers, rose 35%.

Group operating profit climbed 150% to 119.4 billion yen, as strong sales offset rising costs for materials and contract manufacturing.

For the full year, the Tokyo-based chipmaker projects a 37% increase in revenue to 977.9 billion yen.

Renesas is shifting toward more long-term contracts amid the global chip shortage. Outstanding orders increased roughly 50% to about 1.2 trillion yen between the end of June and the end of September. Shibata dispelled concerns that the backlog is artificially inflated by placeholder orders made by buyers scrambling for chips from multiple suppliers.

"We've slashed the figure significantly" to account for such possibilities, he said.