The ongoing global shortage of semiconductors and microchips will cut automotive production by as many as 7.1 million vehicles this year, according to IHS Markit.
The lack of chips won’t stabilize until the second quarter of 2022, with the recovery coming in the second half, IHS said in its latest outlook for the worldwide automotive industry. The pessimistic outlook is further proof that the chip crisis is far from over.
And the research firm’s forecast doesn’t include the latest cuts from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM), which plans to briefly pause output at 14 manufacturing plants in September of this year and slash its overall production by 40%.
Toyota, which had stockpiled chips and previously had experienced less disruption, cited the Asian outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19 for its September production cuts.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) said earlier this week that it will idle its F-150 pick-up truck assembly plant near Kansas City, Missouri next week “due to a semiconductor-related parts shortage.”
IHS Markit now sees the semiconductor and microchip shortage reducing global automotive production by 6.3 million to 7.1 million vehicles this year, not including the Toyota cuts. In the third quarter of this year, as many as 2.1 million vehicles could be lost to the chip shortage.
The second quarter of 2022 “may be the point at which we look for the stabilization of supply,” IHS Markit said in its report.