During the first half of this year, car manufacturers in the Czech Republic produced 663,015 passenger cars. Although it is approximately 31.7 percent more year-on-year, compared to the pre-crisis year 2019, it is still 11.2 percent less. The Association of the Automotive Industry announced it today. Production began to stagnate in the summer due to the lack of supply of chips.
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Production continues to be negatively affected by disrupted supply chains, a global shortage of semiconductors, but also other raw materials and a shortage of manpower. The high year-on-year increase is due to the fact that last year production stopped virtually in the second half of March and in April, with a few exceptions.
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“The automotive industry continues to be under enormous pressure. The global shortage of chips, as well as rising prices of raw materials and materials, the shortage of labor in the Czech Republic, the still uncertain situation regarding the development of the pandemic significantly affects the performance of the industry. Demand for new vehicles also remains well below the level of the pre-crisis year 2019. In EU countries, ie in our main export markets, this decline is more than one-fifth, “said Zdeněk Petzl, Executive Director of the Automotive Industry Association.
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According to him, the problems with the lack of chips will continue to manifest themselves in the coming months. Without these problems, Petzl estimated production to be about five percent higher, making carmakers closer to pre-coronavirus levels. “We estimate that domestic carmakers will produce a total of about 1.3 million vehicles this year,” added Petzl.
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More than 92 percent of cars produced in the Czech Republic went to foreign markets. Škoda Auto produced the most, producing 420,838 cars in domestic plants, which represents a year-on-year increase of 24.7 percent. Less than 12 percent of it remained on the Czech market, the rest went abroad. Nošovice’s Hyundai increased production by 47.7 percent to 142,400 cars. From January to June, 99,777 vehicles were produced in Toyota, an increase of 43.3 percent. Of the total number of passenger cars produced, 9.6 percent were electric.
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In the first half of the year, 2,327 buses were produced, ie 4.3 percent more than last year. Iveco produced 2,113 buses, an increase of 5.7 percent, SOR Libchavy, which as one of the few manufacturers did not stop production even in the first wave of last year, produced 205 buses, a decrease of 8.1 percent.
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TATRA Trucks, which is the only truck manufacturer among the members of the association, produced 538 vehicles in the first half of this year, ie 90 units less than in the same period last year.
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In the new year, the production of Jawa motorcycles continues to thrive. So far during the year, it has produced 558 machines, which after last year’s decline meant an increase of 309 motorcycles.
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