The supply crunch of semiconductor chips for vehicles at Daimler AG’s truck business, the largest in the world, has become acute further in recent weeks, said the division’s chief executive was quoted as saying in a report published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

“Since the summer months the situation has intensified again,” Martin Daum told the weekly newspaper. The production of vehicles of the company had been affected in Germany and the United States by the supply crunch, he added.

The newspaper made public excerpts of the interview which is slated to be published on Sunday.

While the order books of the company were filled, there has also been a massive accumulation of inventory because of the shortage of semiconductors has left the company with a shortage of production of vehicles, as has been the case with other major car makers, Daum said.

“There are significant inventories of already produced vehicles where essential parts are lacking. Those vehicles are badly needed by our customers. We would like to deliver but we are waiting for the parts,” he said according to the newspaper.

The number of units of truck sold for the third quarter will be majorly impacted by further tightening of the supply of chips, Daum said, and added that there was virtually no signals for a speedy recovery in chip supply and predicted that the situation will continue to impact the global auto sector for a while.

Later this year, Daimler Truck Holding AG will be spun off from Daimler with shareholders expected to vote on the move at an extraordinary general meeting on October 1.

After the spinoff, Daimler will be renamed Mercedes-Benz Group AG

A day ago, an detailed report on the impact of the global chip shortage on the global car industry was released by IHS Markit in which it forecast that the global production of light vehicles will fall by about five million this year due to the shortage, while the packaging and testing of the available chips will also get delayed.  

The forecast marked the largest estimated drop in vehicle production outlook within the last nine months.

The challenges to t global supply of semiconductors for cars will likely force auto companies to cut down production of light vehicles throughout the world by about 6.2 per cent for 2021 and 9.3 per cent for 2022, which amounts to 75.8 million units and 82.6 million units, respectively, the IHS reports said.

The Covid-19 pandemic induced lockdown measures imposed by the government to curb the spread of infections in early June in Malaysia have impacted the packaging and testing operations of factories in the semiconductor sector in the country, which has added on to the challenges of the already existing global supply shortage of auto chips, The IHS report also said.

“Our interpretation of the situation in Malaysia, which is responsible for 13% of the global supply of semiconductors for the automotive industry, has become more pessimistic,” IHS said.

“The two-and-a-half-month backlog that has built up since June will take time to clear and is anticipated to extend well into 2022,” the report added.

(Adapted from CarAndBike.com)