NEW YORK, April 29 — Ford estimated yesterday that the global semiconductor shortage will cut second-quarter auto production in half, and warned the supply crunch “will get worse before it gets better.”
Ford expects to lose 1.1 million units of production in 2021, resulting in an earnings hit of some US$2.5 billion (RM10.2 billion), the company said in an earnings release.
The global supply crunch has forced Ford to trim production of the F-150 pickup truck and other models, and other automakers have made similar cutbacks.
Ford said the shortage was exacerbated by a recent supplier fire in Japan. And while that site is expected to resume shipments by the end of the second quarter, but “the broader global semiconductor shortage may not be fully resolved until 2022,” the company said.
The supply shortfall “will get worse before it gets better,” Ford said. “Currently, the company believes that the issue will bottom out during the second quarter, with improvement through the remainder of the year.”
The downcast outlook on production came as Ford reported much better than expected first-quarter earnings.
The Detroit manufacturer reported profits of US$3.3 billion, compared with a loss of US$1.9 billion in the year-ago period, as revenues rose 5.6 per cent to US$36.3 billion.
Shares fell 3.4 per cent to US$12 in after-hours trading. — AFP
