Major carmarkers BMW and Stellantis have warned that the global semiconductor chip shortage is likely to affect production and sales throughout 2021 and later. BMW has been relatively less affected by the shortage than some of its peers thanks to strong relations with its suppliers.
“The longer the supply bottlenecks last, the more tense the situation is likely to become,” BMW chief financial officer Nicolas Peter said in a statement.
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“We expect production restrictions to continue in the second half of the year and hence a corresponding impact on sales volumes.”
Stellantis chief financial officer Richard Palmer said today on a call with reporters that the company did not expect chip supply to improve before the fourth quarter of 2021, and that it was projecting a total production loss of around 1.4m vehicles for the whole year.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced carmakers to shut down plants last year and caused a series of supply chain issues, causing stiff competition for chip deliveries.
The impact has been felt across the car industry, with Tesla and Ford giving similar warnings about their supply issues.
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By GlobalData“While we’re making cars at full speed, the global chip shortage situation remains quite serious,” Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said in a call with investors last week. Meanwhile, Ford halted production in its German plants for several weeks due to the semiconductor shortage.
German chipmaker Infineon Technologies said it was battling extreme tightness in its markets.
“The rebound of global car markets continues to be hampered by acute supply limitations across the entire value chain,” Infineon chief executive Reinhard Ploss told analysts. “All in all, it will take time to get back to a supply-demand equilibrium. In our view, this will take until well into 2022.”
The Ifo economic research institute said on Tuesday that the German car industry and its suppliers faced the worst chip supply shortage in 30 years.
“This is leading to production stoppages,” Ifo researcher Oliver Falck said. “The shortages of semiconductors will persist for some time to come.”
