Friday March 19, 2021
No semiconductors available
Ford stops production at three plants
Semiconductors are currently in short supply worldwide. This is becoming a problem, especially for the auto industry. Ford now wants to build two models initially without certain modules. In addition, factories will be temporarily shut down, including the one in Cologne.
The US automobile manufacturer Ford wants to produce two cars from its production in North America without certain parts and only deliver them later. Two assembly plants are temporarily shut down due to the global shortage of semiconductor chips. The shortage of chips and the lack of a certain component ensure that production of the F-150 pickup and the Edge SUV has to be held back for a few weeks, said a spokeswoman for the group. The number of vehicles affected is in the thousands.
Ford stated that production in the Louisville, Kentucky, and Cologne, Germany plants will also be halted for some time. In the Cologne plant, where the Ford Fiesta is built, the production lines were idle from March 1st to March 16th. According to the company, work will also be suspended there on March 22nd. The cost of these measures was included in the automaker's earlier forecast, according to which Ford's profits this year could narrow by one to 2.5 billion dollars due to the lack of chips.
Semiconductors have become an indispensable part of automotive production. The chips control braking systems or driver assistance systems, for example. Because demand from the auto industry collapsed at the beginning of the corona pandemic, chip manufacturers focused primarily on other customers, such as manufacturers of PCs or game consoles, which experienced a boom during the crisis. The trade war between the US and China is also fueling demand. A quick easing of the situation is not in sight, experts expect that 700,000 vehicles cannot be produced by the end of the year due to the shortage.
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