Due to semiconductor shortage, Ford India has extended the shutdown of its plant situated near Chennai, which closed on 14th January for the 3-day Pongal festival, up to 24th January 2021.
According to a Ford India spokesperson, the facility was supposed to be reopened on 18th January (today) after the Pongal break. But, the interval has been extended due to the semiconductor shortage.
Although Ford is trying to address the supplies, it has revealed that this issue will impact its operations in both its Indian facilities this entire quarter. Ford has also had to shut down a plant in the USA due to the problem.
The automaker is already in deep trouble in India. In December 2020, it only managed to sell 1662 cars in total while it manufactured only close to 65,000 vehicles in the first 3 quarters of financial year 2020-21 in India.
However this issue is not indigenous, for several automakers have been affected across the globe owing to the semiconductor shortage including Audi, Honda, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen, among others.
Cars these days rely on computers for most of their functions. Computer-chip producers could not cope with the unprecedented demand that the pandemic brought about as not only did car sales rebound, usage of electronic devices (makers of such devices are more important clients for chip makers) increased drastically as well.
Source – ETAuto.com