BMW and Stellantis became the latest major carmakers to warn on Tuesday that the global semiconductor chip shortage that has bedeviled the industry this year will drag on throughout 2021 and beyond, hitting production and sales.

Carmakers, forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to shut down plants last year, face stiff competition from the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip deliveries, hit by a series of supply chain disruptions during the pandemic.

Automobiles have become increasingly dependent on chips - for everything from computer management of engines for better fuel economy to driver-assistance features such as emergency braking.

Starved of automobile chips, carmakers have focused production on higher-margin models, and have benefited from higher vehicle prices amid low inventories for consumers.

Stellantis chief financial officer Richard Palmer said on Tuesday the world's fourth largest carmaker did not expect chip supply to improve before the fourth quarter, with a total projected production loss of around 1.4 million vehicles in 2021. Chief Executive Carlos Tavares described the shortage as "the big gorilla in the room." 

BMW, which has so far been less affected by the chip shortage than some of its peers because of strong relations with its suppliers, also said the second half will be more challenging for the German luxury carmaker. 

"The longer the supply bottlenecks last, the more tense the situation is likely to become," BMW chief financial officer Nicolas Peter said in a statement. "We expect production restrictions to continue in the second half of the year and hence a corresponding impact on sales volumes."

German rivals Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG have both warned the chip shortage would dent their results in the second half, and Daimler has said the crisis could drag on into 2022.

Speed bump

Other carmakers from Tesla to Ford Motor Co have warned that for the foreseeable future, a lack of chips is the main speed bump.

"While we're making cars at full speed, the global chip shortage situation remains quite serious," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last week.

On Tuesday, General Motors Co shut down several North American plants because of the shortage, including three next week that make its highly profitable full-size pickup trucks. The No.1 US automaker called the situation "complex and very fluid".

German chipmaker Infineon Technologies also painted a grim picture on Tuesday, saying that it was battling extreme tightness in its markets as the latest wave of COVID-19 disrupts production in Asia and inventories hit all-time lows.

Just as Munich-based Infineon was recovering from a winter storm that crippled its plant in Austin, Texas, a new wave of coronavirus infections forced the shutdown of one of its plants in Malaysia in June.

The production outages mean that, compared to European rival STMicroelectronics, Infineon was less able in its fiscal third quarter to profit from strong demand for everything from smartphones to automobiles.

Commenting on the automotive industry, which accounts for two-fifths of sales at Infineon, Ploss said that recovery was being held back by "acute supply limitations across the entire value chain".

"Inventories are extremely tight and end demand is being postponed. All in all, it will take time to get back to a supply-demand equilibrium. In our view, this will take until well into 2022," Ploss told analysts on a conference call.

Ploss said that inventories were "at a historic low; our chips are being shipped from our fabs straight into end applications".

Under those circumstances, any government-imposed lockdowns - such as the one at Melaka in Malaysia where Infineon has a production site - were especially grave.

With the Melaka plant only expected to return to producing at full capacity this month, Infineon faces a hit in the double-digit millions of euros that will run into its fiscal fourth quarter to September 30, he said.

Confirming the grim picture, the Ifo economic research group said on Tuesday that the German car industry and its suppliers faced the worst chip supply shortage in 30 years. A poll showed that 83 percent of companies were affected, up from 65 percent in April.

"This is leading to production stoppages," said Ifo's Oliver Falck. "The shortages of semiconductors will persist for some time to come."

On Sunday, French automobile lobby group CCFA-PFA said that the global chip shortage and an upsurge in coronavirus infections would reduce the prospects of a strong rebound by the French car market.

Infineon will be able to raise output of specialist power-management chips with the commissioning of its new plant in Villach, Austria, but it still relies heavily on Asian contract manufacturers that are running flat out.

Infineon's revenue increased by 1 percent to 2.72 billion euros ($3.23 billion) in the fiscal third quarter from the prior three-month period, shy of expectations in a poll of 22 analysts by Vara Research.

The company maintained its forecast for revenue in its fiscal year to September 30 of 11 billion euros, while nudging up its guidance for segment result margin - a measure of operational profitability - to above 18 percent.



●Origin：Global Times
●Link：https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230639.shtml