German carmaker Volkswagen will reduce working hours at its main plant in Wolfsburg due to the continuing shortage of chips. The measure will apply in the first half of October, the company said today. As of October 1, there will be only one production line in Wolfsburg.
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For the same reason, the Škoda Auto subsidiary has completely stopped production in all three plants in the Czech Republic for the whole of this week – in Mladá Boleslav, Kvasiny and Vrchlabí.
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All the world’s carmakers are facing a shortage of chips and missing supplies. In June, for the same reason, Hyundai in Nošovice also suspended production for a day. Volkswagen said that in the first half of the year, the missing components came to a six-figure amount due to production losses, Reuters reported.
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Volkswagen’s production plant in Wolfsburg
Photo: Volkswagen
The global shortage of chips, which is currently manifested mainly in the automotive industry, is being addressed by German car manufacturers through changes in established production processes. Just as Škoda does, it puts almost finished cars away so that they can later be equipped with important components and only put on the market. The DPA informed about it.
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According to information from Daimler Truck, which manufactures commercial vehicles and trucks, there are a significant number of manufactured trucks that lack important parts. Volkswagen also started to be able to store unfinished cars and equip them with the necessary missing components and semiconductors later.
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Volkswagen’s production plant in Wolfsburg
Photo: Volkswagen
Several factors have contributed to the current shortage of chips. One of the most fundamental is the increased demand for consumer electronics due to the pandemic, but the growth in demand for chips also supports the continuing interest in cloud services and cryptocurrency mining. The current crisis was also exacerbated by a fire at Japanese chip maker Renesas Electronics in March this year. The supply of chips was also negatively affected by the March blockade of the Suez Canal, which is one of the busiest routes for merchant ships.
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The shortage of semiconductors, meanwhile, has reached unprecedented proportions. According to an estimate by the consulting company Alix Partners, the entire automotive industry could lose revenues of $ 210 billion (4.6 trillion crowns) this year. The demand is huge, but supply cannot satisfy it.
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