No deliveries from Ukraine
Two VW plants have to take a forced break
02/26/2022 11:51 am
The war in the Ukraine shows its first economic effects in Germany. The VW plants in Zwickau and Dresden cannot continue to produce due to a lack of supplies. The forced break is initially planned for a few days. For thousands of employees, this means short-time work.
Because of the war in the Ukraine, vehicle production at the VW plants in Zwickau and Dresden will have to be suspended for a few days next week. The reason for this is the lack of material deliveries, as a Volkswagen spokesman said on request. According to this, among other things, electric cable sets that are manufactured in Ukraine are missing.
According to the spokesman, no vehicles are produced in Zwickau from Tuesday to Friday and in Dresden from Wednesday to Friday. This means short-time work for several thousand employees. First, “Radio Zwickau” reported on the break in production.
The Nuremberg car supplier Leoni had already closed its two plants in Stryji and Kolomyja near Lviv in western Ukraine on Thursday due to the Russian attack on the country. Around 7,000 employees produce cable harnesses (on-board electrical systems) for cars there. A spokesman said VW is a big customer of Leoni. However, he does not know whether the production interruptions in Zwickau and Dresden are related to the production stop at Leoni.
Task force set up at VW
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said on Friday that a task force had been set up to assess other possible consequences, for example on supply relationships. The VW boss reacted with horror to the start of the war in Ukraine.
Due to a lack of semiconductors, Volkswagen was not able to produce as many electric cars in Zwickau as planned last year, writes the Handelsblatt. This has already slowed down Volkswagen’s electric offensive, and the war in Ukraine has caused VW to have further supply problems, the newspaper continues.
Central and Eastern Europe are an important sales market for the second largest car company after Toyota. In 2021, all VW Group brands delivered almost 660,000 vehicles there. The core brand VW passenger cars sold around 206,000 new cars in the region last year.