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According to industry sources on the 22nd, Ford recently closed its Louisville, Kentucky sports utility vehicle (SUV) plant due to a lack of semiconductors, and decided to suspend operation of the Saarlouis plant in Germany for one month until the 19th of next month.
For the same reason, Volkswagen also predicted that production in the first quarter of this year would be disrupted by 100,000, and Audi in the group delayed production of high-end models in January, and 10,000 employees went on leave.
Chrysler also temporarily suspended operations at its Ontario plant in Canada, and Jeep delayed restarting its manufacturing plant in Mexico. Japanese companies such as Toyota and Nissan also announced plans to cut production temporarily.
The problem with the supply and demand of automotive semiconductors is that semiconductor companies have reduced the production of semiconductors for vehicles and increased the production of semiconductors for IT products such as computers and smartphones as major automobile factories were shut down due to Corona 19 last year. In addition, as demand for finished cars recovered faster than expected from the second half of last year, the supply of semiconductors for vehicles became even more scarce.
It is known that domestic automakers have not yet affected the supply and demand of semiconductors. An official of an automaker explained, “Since semiconductors are not bulky parts, we usually have a stock of about three months, so it is not in the stage of production problems.”
However, there is a high possibility that the disruption in semiconductor supply will prolong the prolonged period, and domestic companies are also concerned about damage.
Semiconductor companies have to change or expand their IT device production lines to vehicle lines, because this work is not done in a short period of time.
In addition, it is known that the price of semiconductors for vehicles is cheaper than for IT devices, so the profitability of semiconductors is relatively low, which is a disadvantage for the automobile industry that semiconductor companies are passive in changing or expanding production lines.
There is a possibility that semiconductor companies will raise the price of semiconductors for vehicles in the future.
Song Seon-jae, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment, said, “The price of automotive semiconductors is bound to rise due to the continuous increase in demand and supply-demand imbalances, and this will inevitably act as a factor in increasing the cost of automakers.”