(CU)_German luxury automaker Porsche warned on Monday (Feb 22) that the company’s daily operations could be affected over the next few months, on account of the global semiconductor shortage.
Company chief executive Oliver Blume noted that the sudden increase in demand for consumer electronics as well as the faster return of the automotive sector following the pandemic has led to the shortage which is a “very serious” matter affecting the whole automobile industry.
“We could be affected every day, so we watch very deeply (over) the next days and months what we can do. We have to relax short term and look for measures long term,” he said.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, the demand for chip components or semiconductors experienced a significant surge as consumers snapped up game consoles, laptops and TVs during the periods of lockdown. However, now many of these products are either sold out or subject to lengthy shipping times.
The shortfall in essential chip components also brought assembly lines of the automotive industry to a standstill, halting the production of hundreds of thousands of vehicles worldwide. This was mainly owing to the industry’s “just-in-time” supply chain, which has been relied upon for decades in a bid to preserve capital in the automotive sector.
Therefore, Blume noted that the recent shortfall in semiconductors would mean Porsche would also be forced to reconsider this supply chain model.
“We have to think about what storage do we need really for all these stocks. We have to be more flexible and we have to plan more deeply the immediate capacities,” he said.
