Hyundai is hopeful that the chip shortage affecting the global auto sector will ease in the second quarter. The company also expects sales to return to pre-pandemic levels this year.
In the past quarter, Hyundai made less profit than in the same period last year due to the global chip shortage and rising raw material prices. The company saw net profit fall by 57 percent. Sales rose 6.1 percent, thanks in part to a weaker Korean won. Commenting on the results, Vice President Gang Hyun Seo said the chip crisis in the auto sector would likely continue through the end of the current quarter, after which production could normalize. In addition to bottlenecks in the supply chain, the company also suffered from higher raw material prices. Hyundai said in November that iron ore costs were up 63 percent from a year earlier to $165 a ton. Aluminum and copper prices were 40 percent and 48 percent higher, respectively.
Hyundai isn’t the only automaker struggling with the semiconductor shortage. Many other major competitors have had to suspend production of new vehicles due to shortages of chips and other parts. Although some voiced some optimism towards the end of 2021, the chip shortage seems far from over. Hyundai’s estimate that it may stabilize in the second quarter is significantly more optimistic than AutoForecast Solutions’ forecast shared Monday. This expects that the chip shortage will continue to be significant in 2022 and that it will take another two or three years before the expansion of production capacity has an effect on supply.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl