Auto production is stuck, although the industry has survived the corona shock.
Failures are now catching up with them.
Chip manufacturers cannot keep up.
Munich - Whether at Audi or Daimler, BMW or the Ford works - car production, which is actually recovering after the Corona * shock, is currently stalling everywhere because semiconductors are missing.
Not even the chip company Infineon is happy about that.
"It will take a few more quarters to relax," warns Reinhard Ploss. There is even a risk that the chip bottlenecks will drag on into 2022 and the auto industry will only then be able to catch up with lost quantities, warns the head of the Munich chip company Infineon. What is currently missing in particular are microcontrollers, which Infineon does not build itself, but has them supplied by contract manufacturers in Asia. "We have created buffers, but they are now running out," says the manager. In addition, there are problems in our own US plant. The Infineon chip factory in Austin, Texas, had to be shut down due to a winter storm there with a power outage. It is running again, but because Infineon is producing everywhere, it will no longer be possible to make up for lost production there in 2021.Due to the general lack of chips, Ford in Cologne adjusted to reduced production by mid-August.
Corona hits the auto industry with a delay: Chips are missing - as in other industries
The Munich Ifo Institute for Economic Research has determined that over 60 percent of all car manufacturers and their suppliers are currently complaining about bottlenecks in the supply of chips. Other industries are also lacking chips. "This bottleneck could endanger the recovery of the industry," warns Ifo expert Klaus Wohlrabe. In the automotive industry in particular, managers now have to rethink procurement, say experts. Just-in-time deliveries that have been customary there so far, i.e. without storage, at least with semiconductors, it will no longer be possible to continue, says Ploss. “This lesson will be lasting,” he estimates. At Infineon, discussions were already underway about new and longer-term ordering behavior on the part of the automotive industry. At the same time, the chip industry is working flat out to increase its capacities worldwide.However, this does not happen overnight in the industry, which is characterized, among other things, by extreme clean room requirements. Infineon experts say it usually takes one to one and a half years or more for new factories to work. The Munich-based company is currently at an advantage because an expansion of its own capacities has been planned for a long time and now “only” has to be accelerated. At the Austrian chip plant in Villach, a capacity expansion by three months can be brought forward to autumn 2021. The Dresden factory is also being expanded.because an expansion of own capacities had been planned for a long time and now “only” has to be accelerated. At the Austrian chip plant in Villach, a capacity expansion by three months can be brought forward to autumn 2021. The Dresden factory is also being expanded.because an expansion of own capacities had been planned for a long time and now “only” has to be accelerated. At the Austrian chip plant in Villach, a capacity expansion by three months can be brought forward to autumn 2021. The Dresden factory is also being expanded.
Coronavirus: Supply bottlenecks in the automotive industry - chip orders reduced too much
The auto industry is particularly suffering from the supply bottlenecks because it had reduced its orders from chip manufacturers a year ago under the impact of the pandemic. Then the demand for cars came back faster than expected. In the meantime, however, manufacturers of computers and smartphones had rushed to the free chip capacities because their products are in high demand in the pandemic due to a sustained surge in digitization. Compared to computer and cell phone manufacturers, car manufacturers are relatively small buyers in the chip industry. Around eight percent of all semiconductors produced worldwide are used in cars. The US technology giant Apple is building that much. Now the auto industry has to put itself back in line, which it is not used to.
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