Chinese carmakers struggling after chip shortage

Automakers around the world have had to adjust assembly lines due to the shortages, caused by manufacturing delays that some semiconductor makers blame on a faster-than-expected recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, reports Al Jazeera.

Volkswagen AG, China’s biggest foreign automaker which wants to sell more than four million vehicles in the country, told the news channel the effect of the shortage remains unabated in the second quarter this year.

Stephan Woellenstein, Volkswagen’s China chief, told reporters as quoted by Al Jazeera that it was hard to gauge how much production Volkswagen might lose week-to-week or even month-to-month because of the chip shortage.

“It’s really like fire-fighting … In some cases, we have switched to another chip so we changed suppliers,” he said, ahead of the Shanghai auto show opening on Monday.

China has emerged as a nation where reports of auto chip shortage first emerged last year.

Li Shaohua, senior official at China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told Al JAzeera chip supply shortages hit auto production by 5-8 percent in the first two months of this year and expects the hit to ease from the third quarter of this year.