Both Audi and Volvo are temporarily suspending their car production in Belgium. The cause is the worldwide chip shortage, which is hitting the car industry hard, among other things.
Audi and Volvo are experiencing production disruptions in Belgium due to the global chip shortage in the car industry. Production at the Audi factory in Brussels will be halted on Thursday and Friday and the Swedish Volvo factory in Ghent will be shut down next week. An Audi spokesperson in Brussels assumes that the supply of chips in the coming months will remain uncertain and that further production adjustments cannot be ruled out. “But it seems that the crisis has bottomed out,” he says. “We expect improvement in the second half of the year.”
According to the European Automotive Suppliers Association (CLEPA), chip shortages have slowed production of half a million cars worldwide. The organization thinks that the effects of the shortage will be noticeable until 2022, although the worst seems to be over by now. CLEPA calls for a European solution to the deficit. According to CLEPA, the European car industry obtains 60 to 70 percent of the necessary chips from China and Taiwan.
Earlier this week, research by Automotive News that to date 3.6 million cars have already become ‘victims’ of the chip shortage. They should have been built by now, but have been delayed due to the shortage. That it will pick up again, is apparent from the prediction of AutoForecastSolutions. That is counting on a total production delay for 4.7 million cars, so most of the delay in that case has already happened.