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Chip shortage costs auto industry $ 210 billion in sales

2021-09-24T03:23:56.526Z


The chip shortage is hitting the auto industry even more than previously expected, and a recovery is not in sight. For consumers this means that cars will probably remain expensive.


Enlarge image

Mercedes plant in Bremen: Dependent on semiconductors

Photo: Carmen Jaspersen / picture alliance / dpa

Those who had hoped for improvement will be disappointed: The shortage of semiconductors is likely to hit the automotive industry even more than previously expected.

According to a forecast, a total of 7.7 million vehicles cannot be produced in 2021 because chips are missing.

AlixPartners announced that the automobile manufacturer was losing around 210 billion dollars in sales.

The company is correcting its forecast from May - and is now expecting a loss of sales that is almost twice as high.

“Contrary to many previous expectations, the production capacity in the chip area has not yet recovered,” said the managing director of AlixPartners Germany, Marcus Kleinfeld.

"The pre-crisis level is far from being reached." The car manufacturers can partially compensate for the loss of sales by increasing the prices of the vehicles or by increasing the production of larger and more expensive cars.

Supplier companies, on the other hand, have been hit particularly hard by the crisis.

During the crisis, smartphones were produced instead of cars

The corona pandemic is considered to be the main reason for the current chip shortage: At the beginning of the crisis in spring 2020, sales in the auto business collapsed, manufacturers canceled their orders or reduced order quantities.

Many chip companies then switched their production to entertainment electronics.

When the auto business started to do better again, parts were missing.

Supply bottlenecks at raw material suppliers and the geopolitical conflicts between China and the USA exacerbated the shortage even further.

And: Many manufacturers are currently converting their production to e-cars.

But for them you need even more semiconductors than for classic combustion engines.

In the past year, more and more car manufacturers had therefore sent their employees on short-time work.

Daimler CEO Ola Källenius does not expect the situation in the industry to ease significantly until 2023.

jlk / dpa / Reuters

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-09-24

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