Skoda Auto Volkswagen’s Czech factories will not operate from December 23, 2021 until January 10, 2022, Reuters reports.
This is due to interruptions in the supply of spare parts – a shortage of electronic components that plague automakers around the world.
The official Christmas holiday for employees of the Czech automaker will last until January 1, 2022, and the rest of the days will be formalized as forced downtime, during which employees will be paid 80% of their salaries.
As a result, the decline in the company’s production in December will be up to 25%. The pause will also affect the availability of Skoda cars in the sales network.
In 2021, car companies are plagued by a shortage of microcircuits. In the past few months, many of them have been forced to make painful decisions related to manufacturing operations. Some factories suspended production, others continued to produce cars without specific systems, such as touch screens, heated seats.
As a result, it is predicted that in 2021 automakers will release 7.7 million cars less than originally planned. Experts believe that manufacturing companies could lose $ 210 billion.
But there is news that is encouraging for the auto industry. Five major chipmakers have confirmed increases in inventories over the past two months. We are talking about Renesas Electronics, Infineon, NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments.
