Volkswagen cuts production in Wolfsburg
02/09/2021
After Toyota, Volkswagen also decided to cut production at the Wolfsburg plant, the group's main one. The reason is the shortage of semiconductor chips. A spokesperson for the company stressed that "the current critical situation in the supply of semiconductors continues to significantly affect the production of cars for all manufacturers".
More specifically, for Wolfsburg there is only one working shift with reduced working hours for all the other shifts in the factory.Volkswagen had already got its hands on yesterday, anticipating a further cut in production. "We currently anticipate that the supply of chips in the third quarter will be very volatile and limited," the auto group said, adding "We cannot rule out further changes to production."
Toyota also announced that in September it will reduce global production by 40% with a shutdown in 14 factories. Stellantis will also have production stops, in particular it will have to stop production for at least a week in the Rennes-La Janais plant and for at least three days in Sochaux, where the Citroën C5 and Peugeot 5008 and the Peugeot 308, 3008 are produced respectively. and 5008 and Opel Grandland X.
The annual capacity of the plants should be around 150 thousand and 400/500 thousand units, while it has not been specified how long production will be suspended. The causes are related to interruptions in the supply chain in Asia due to the spread of the Delta variant, in particular in Malaysia and Vietnam. The auto industry is grappling with new difficulties after recovery in demand undermined supply chains earlier this year, while the Covid-19 outbreak in Asia affected chip manufacturing and operations at commercial ports. Consequently, IHS has revised its production forecast this year, which does not incorporate Toyota's cut, estimating between 6 and 7 million less volumes.
"Bad news for the original equipment manufacturers, but partially offset by the better price-mix as evidenced by the numbers for the first half of this year", commented Equita Sim, "while in our opinion it will have a greater impact on the Tier 1 they have less pricing power ". According to another analyst, the news confirms that the crisis regarding the lack of semiconductors has not ended, in line with the expectations of companies that see a second half no worse than the first with an improvement in the fourth quarter. "The impact from the shutdown of the Rennes and Sochaux plants should, however, be contained, ie less than 0.5% of the total annual production of Stellantis for each month of shutdown", specified the expert. In any case, "we highlight that the actions implemented by the company in the first half, such as favoring the production of vehicles with above-average margins, have been successful, protecting profits and margins with an adjusted ebit margin of 11.4% or 10% net of accounting effects deriving from the merger with Psa ". On the stock exchange, however, the securities of the sector remain under a shower of sales: BMW loses 2.29%, Daimler 0.92%, Renault 2.98%, Stellantis 1.38% and Volkswagen loses 1. , 72%. (All rights reserved)