As the shortage of semiconductor processing chips continues to impact the automotive and technology industries, several leading car makers have been forced to close production lines temporarily.
The crisis has been affecting companies for several months now. It stems from increased demand for personal computers, tablets and smartphones at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which largely diverted supply away from the automotive sector.
Ford
The factory in Turkey that builds the Ford Transit for the European market will be closed from 19 April to 13 June, with the manufacturer bringing forward a planned summer shutdown, according to Automotive News Europe.
The Focus production line in Saarlouis, Germany has been inactive since late February and is set to remain closed for another 20 days, while closures of varying length will impact Galaxy, Kuga, Mondeo, S-Max and Transit Connect production until 31 July.
Closures will also impact the Fiesta and Puma production lines in Germany and Romania respectively, although to a much smaller degree.
Having earlier paused production of its hugely popular F-150 pick-up truck in light of the semiconductor shortage, Ford has also now taken the decision to halt operations at several factories across the US for two weeks from 3 May.
According to The Detroit News, the affected sites are responsible for producing the F-150, Transit, Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator for the US, as well as the Mustang for global markets, including Europe and the UK. It's not clear how visible the impact of restricted Mustang production will be in Europe.
The site quotes an internal Ford memo addressed to employees from manufacturing vice-president John Savona: "Ford's North American plants continue to be affected by the global semiconductor shortage – along with auto makers and other industries around the world.
"As you build every vehicle you can for our dealers and customers, our teams behind the scenes are working hard to source additional parts."
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is pausing operations at two of its largest production facilities for at least a week due to a shortage of semiconductor chips.
The manufacturer's Castle Bromwich and Halewood factories in the UK will implement a "limited period of non-production" from Monday. Operations could restart seven days later, depending on the state of semiconductor supply.
Affected models include the Castle Bromwich-built Jaguar XE, XF and F-Type and the Halewood-built Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque.
The Solihull facility that builds the Range Rover and Jaguar F-Pace will remain in operation, as will the Land Rover Defender factory in Slovakia and JLR plants in Brazil and China.
A spokesman for the brand told Autocar: "Like other automotive manufacturers, we're currently experiencing some Covid-19 [related] supply-chain disruption, including the global availability of semiconductors, which is having an impact on our production schedules and our ability to meet global demand for some of our vehicles.
"As a result, we've adjusted production schedules for certain vehicles, which means that our Castle Bromwich and Halewood manufacturing plants will be operating a limited period of non-production from Monday 26 April. Manufacturing continues at our Solihull plant.
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Sbagnall, obviously you didn't get my point if you think I was being "silly" a word i would not use toward a child far less an adult. Having to stop production of cars or other products puts jobs at risk I have staff who have partners and family that have already lost jobs in different sectors through the effects of the pandemic. At no point did I say jaguar landrover were perfect the British service economy is in a mess and what we need is more manufacturing of all types not less. The crisis at the start of the pandemic should tell us a lot about having the capacity to make things we need here and not to have a total reliance on other countries. The point I was making is that as an employee of the NHS, taxes pay my salary no tax revenue =no healthcare we are all linked.
The company in question does actually have a lot to answer for in terms of mismanagement, their social/environmental impact and their own questionable use of tax payers money.
These are the same car plants that employ staff that pay tax in this country buy goods in this country work for a company that pays tax in the country , exports accros the world . All these taxes and sales and economic boost are what pay for the NHS staff of which I am one and have been working my but off to then hear snide comments about companies that help support us all in the wider economy . Jaguar landrover are not the only company affected by the shortage we also have delays in getting IT equipment in the nhs due to this too.