PRAGUE -- Volkswagen Group's Skoda is restarting most of its production lines on Sunday after a two-week outage caused by a shortage of semiconductor chips.
Skoda had said on Oct. 7 that it would "significantly reduce or even halt" production from Oct. 18 until the end of the year because of the global shortage of chips hobbling the automotive sector.
"I can confirm that most of Skoda Auto's production lines will resume work after a two-week outage tonight, starting with the night shift at 10:00 p.m.," Skoda spokesperson Kamila Biddle said on Sunday.
The Czech Auto Industry Association has said automakers in the country will produce quarter of a million fewer cars than expected this year because of the global microchip shortage, costing the automotive sector 200 billion crowns ($9 billion) in sales.
Besides Skoda, Toyota and Hyundai have car plants in the Czech Republic
The auto sector is the backbone of the Czech economy, employing 180,000 workers and accounting for a quarter of industrial output.
The Czech economy expanded slower than expected in the third quarter, showing a recovery losing steam as external demand declined and the global supply crunch hit the car sector.
