Chip-shortage 'Crisis' Halts Automotive Output
"Audi is having to slow production because of a computer-chip shortage it is calling a "crisis upon a crisis"' according to to the BBC and Financial Times, 18th January 2021Audi CEO, Markus Duesmann said it was now aiming to make 10,000 fewer cars in the first quarter of the year and putting more than 10,000 workers on furlough.
After a poor start to 2020 for new car sales, manufacturers cut their orders from the Chinese factories making computer chips. But then, at the end of the year, "everybody was quite surprised by the strength of the market", Mr Duesmann said.
The demand from carmakers "competes for manufacturing capacity with smartphones, servers and a host of other segments". And a boom in the market for devices such as PCs and new game consoles was making it doubly difficult to book manufacturing time.
The shortages have seen Mercedes-maker Daimler, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota all reportedly suspend production for days or weeks at a time."
See the full article on the BBC website here.