Toyota dealership based in Alexandria, Virginia. EPA=Yonhap News
World automakers are in emergency due to the shortage of automotive semiconductors. Following Germany’s Volkswagen (VW), Japan’s Toyota Motor Company, Honda, and Nissan started to cut production due to a lack of semiconductor supply. Ford and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) have shut down some lines. The production line was stopped last year in the aftermath of a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), and this year, production has been cut because of semiconductors.
According to Japanese media such as Kyodo News and Nippon Geizai Shimbun (Nikkei) on the 10th, Toyota Motor Corp. decided to reduce production of the tundra, a pickup truck made at its Texas factory in the US due to a lack of semiconductor parts. The specific scale and period of production cuts are unknown.
Honda also started to cut production of’Pit’, a small car made at a local factory in Japan, and in January this year, it notified its customers of a plan to cut production of more than 30,000 units, which is 20% of monthly production in China alone.
Nikkei predicted that Honda’s production cuts in China in January this year will reach 50,000 units.
Nissan Motors also started to cut production of the’Note’, a small car that was released as a flagship model in the Japanese market in December of last year. It is reported that Nissan Motors will reduce the production of notebooks by more than 5,000 units, which was initially caught by 15,000 units in January this year. An official from Nissan Motor said that if the semiconductor shortage prolongs, there is a possibility to increase the scale of production cuts after February this year.
According to Kyodo News, Fiat, FCA and Ford based in North America are also affected by the shortage of semiconductors. FCA has decided to temporarily suspend the operation of its Ontario plant in Canada, which produces the high-end sedan’Chrysler 300′, and postpone the time to restart the plant in Mexico.
In addition, Ford decided to shut down its Kentucky plant for a week. Ford Motor Co., Ltd. will stop operating its Kentucky factory in the United States that produces sports utility vehicles (SUVs)’Escape’ from the 11th.
Volkswagen ID.3 Zwickau factory. Central photo
Germany’s Volkswagen announced in December last year that it would begin production adjustments at its factories in China, North America and Europe due to a shortage of semiconductor supplies.
The global automobile industry is expected to be adversely affected by earnings improvement as it is pushed to production cuts amid a recovery in sales prices, which had plunged in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
The Asahi Shimbun reported that the rapid increase in demand for semiconductors exclusively for home PCs and smartphones due to Corona 19 has developed into a global semiconductor shortage and is hitting the automotive industry.
Seiji Sugiura, a researcher at the Tokai Tokyo Research Center, told the Asahi Shimbun, “Semiconductor production must increase enough to meet demand, or demand for semiconductors such as smartphones must be stabilized.” Forecast.
Reporter Bae Jae-seong [email protected]