AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/29 Report--

The global shortage of automobile chips continues, and many automobile enterprises once again announce that they will stop factory production due to chip shortage.

Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motor Co. may stop production in April as the global automotive industry suffers from a shortage of automotive semiconductors, foreign media reported on the 29th. The two companies currently have two to six weeks of vehicle semiconductor inventory.

Stellantis Group announced that production at five North American plants will be suspended due to a global chip shortage, and the shutdown will begin on March 29 and last until mid-April. The five plants are the Toluca, Mexico plant that makes the Jeep Compass; the Windsor, Ontario assembly plant that makes Chrysler Pacifica minivans; an Illinois plant that makes Jeep Cherokee SUVs; a Michigan plant that makes the Ram 1500 classic pickup truck; and another Ontario plant that makes Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger.

Nissan also plans to suspend production at its Smyrna plant in Turkey, Canton plant in the United States and Aguascalientes plant in Mexico from April 1 and resume normal production on April 6.

Affected by the epidemic, since the end of last year, the chip shortage problem has continued to affect the production of automobile enterprises, traditional automobile giants including Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Subaru and Nissan have been forced to reduce production or stop production.

It only intensified after entering 2021. In addition, the earthquake in Japan, the fire at Renesas Electronics Factory and the cold wave in North America further aggravated the chip crisis that was already in short supply and affected the supply of other auto parts suppliers. Renesas Electronics said recently that the fire damage at the factory was much higher than expected, and the company currently estimates that the fire affected 17 machines instead of the initial 11. Two-thirds of the chips produced at the plant are for use in the automotive industry, which could exacerbate the chip supply crisis currently facing global automakers.

On March 26, due to the shortage of semiconductors, NIO Automobile announced its decision to suspend the automobile production activities of the "Jianghuai NIO" Hefei manufacturing plant for 5 working days from March 29. Affected by this news, NIO auto U.S. stocks once fell more than 8%.

Tesla said it announced a price increase of 8000 yuan for the domestic Model Y due to higher manufacturing costs, and an increase of 347,900 yuan for the standard battery life version from 339,900 yuan; and an increase of 8000 yuan for the Performance high-performance model from 369,900 yuan to 377,900 yuan.

Citic Securities pointed out that the chip shortage tide is mainly due to the recovery speed of automobile sales after the epidemic exceeds expectations, the delay of chip addition of automobile enterprises, in addition, the superposition of consumer electronics hoarding goods in advance to seize production capacity, the global 8-inch wafer production capacity is tight, and the earthquake in Japan, the snowstorm in the United States and other impact of some wafer factories temporarily shut down. The agency expects shortages to continue until the fourth quarter of 2021, with 2021Q1-Q2 being the most tight supply and demand phase.

According to industry analysis, the global shortage of automobile chips in 2021 is expected to reduce the production of 2 million to 4.5 million vehicles, resulting in a reduction of $60.6 billion (about 395.9 billion yuan) in revenue for the global automobile industry this year. It is worth noting that the industry is very worried about the current shortage of automobile chips, which is expected to last for one year this year.

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