German carmaker Volkswagen Group predicts more disruptions in production due to the continued global semiconductor shortages. During the last few weeks, a number of global carmakers announced temporary stoppages of production units due to the lack of supplies, a trend expected to continue further in 2021. “Due to the increasing demand for consumer electronics and the continued recovery of the car markets, there have been supply bottlenecks in the automotive industry since the turn of the year,” says VW’s official statement. “The consequences are industry-wide adjustments in car production, which also affects the brands of the Volkswagen Group.”

Despite the tense situation, there have only been a few lost days at various Volkswagen Group plants, the company claims.

“We are currently assuming that the supply of chips will remain tense in the coming months,” VW says. “That is why our task force, together with our suppliers and semiconductor manufacturers, works continuously to secure production for all brands and in all regions as much as possible.”

The situation was further exacerbated by the past snowstorms in Texas, as large chip manufacturers located there had to stop or reduce their production, and by a fire at the Japanese semiconductor producer Renesas in March. Depending on the supply situation, the Volkswagen Group says it will do everything in its power to catch up as far as possible on the vehicles that have not been built so far in the course of the year. The top priority is to process the high order backlog.

Earlier this week, Audi – part of VW, announced it will halt production at its Neckarsulm site until 30 April due to lack of semiconductor deliveries.

Meanwhile, the technology company Intel expects it will take “a couple of years” to make the significant investments to meet the growing global chip demand, says the company’s ceo Pat Gelsinger during the presentation of the first quarter results. “We have doubled our internal wafer capacity in the past few years, but the industry now is challenged by a shortage of foundry capacity, substrates and components.”

The Renesas fire affected a number of global carmakers in Japan, the US and Europe, given Renesas is the second-largest producer globally of car microcontroller unit chips. The shortage is also disrupting automotive production in Russia. During the first quarter, production of about 1.3 million vehicles was delayed due to the global chip shortage.