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At present, the shortage of semiconductors has swept the global market, and a number of overseas car companies are facing production cuts or suspensions due to chip supply cuts. GM is the latest automaker to announce that it has to stop production because of a shortage of semiconductor chips.

GM recently warned that global chip supply shortages will reduce car production this year, and the company will temporarily close three of its plants. The plants in Fairfax, Kansas, Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, where Cadillac XT4 crossover is the main market, and Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, which mainly produces Chevrolet explorers and others, will cut production by a week on Feb. 8. In addition, a factory in South Korea's Fuping district has halved its capacity. GM also said it closed its Corvette sports car plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, this week because of a shortage of transmission components.

GM did not disclose how much production would be lost after the shutdown, but said it would be the first to produce high-margin models, including full-size pick-up trucks, leisure station wagons and Chevrolet Corvette sports cars. A GM spokesman said the current situation is very uncertain and will try its best to make up for lost production. Despite efforts to reduce the impact, the chip shortage will hit GM's production in 2021.

The shortage of semiconductor chips has a great impact on the global automobile market. at present, many automobile companies, including Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford, Daimler and so on, have announced that they have adjusted their production plans due to the shortage of semiconductor chips. On January 7th, Honda announced that it would cut production by 4000 vehicles in January due to a shortage of semiconductor chips in its vehicle control system. On January 8th, Toyota announced that it would reduce production of its Tundra pickup truck at its Texas assembly plant by about 40%. On January 11, Ford announced that it would suspend production at its manufacturing plant in Louisville, Kentucky, for a week due to shortages of chips and related parts, and that Ford Richie and Lincoln adventurers would suspend production. In addition, the plant will temporarily cut about 3900 jobs; in addition, Nissan, FCA, Audi, BMW, Daimler and other car companies are also affected by chip shortages.

In line with GM, a number of car companies have adopted the strategy of "abandoning cars and keeping handsome", that is, taking the lead in producing models with higher profit margins. Daimler will bring higher profit margins by providing a limited supply of chips to models such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Volkswagen has taken similar steps, giving priority to Porsche models and Skoda's new all-electric SUV model.

According to Bernstein Research, the global shortage of automotive chips in 2021 will result in a loss of production of as many as 4.5 million vehicles, equivalent to about 5 per cent of global annual car production. In addition, Inverto, a think-tank owned by Boston Consulting, predicts that the shortage of automotive semiconductor chips will affect the automotive industry for half a year or even three quarters.

At present, the shortage of semiconductor chips has little impact on domestic car companies, except that Volkswagen publicly said that the "lack of core" problem will lead to a reduction in production capacity, other car companies have not been affected for the time being, but in the long run, the overseas epidemic is still in a period of great circulation, while semiconductor chips rely on imports, and domestic car companies may also be affected by "lack of core" in the future.

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