Automakers around the world are continuing to trim back vehicle production plans in the face of microchip shortages, and the expected worst-case scenario continues to rise, according to AutoForecast Solutions.
But the pace of production cuts is down sharply for this week, according to Auto-?Forecast’s weekly monitor of factory activity.
AFS estimates that global manufacturers have dropped about 115,000 vehicles out of their assembly schedules in the past week. The previous week, automakers cut 295,000 vehicles.
Assembly lines in North America, Japan and South Korea saw the greatest number of new schedule reductions for the week. North American plants added 36,000 vehicles to their running tally of production cuts. Japan’s manufacturers cut their plans by 18,000 units, and South Korean plants trimmed 16,000 vehicles out of their plans.
AFS now forecasts that the industry faces a loss of 6.2 million vehicles globally because of the chip supply line disruption, up from 6.1 million a week ago. Of that total, North America could see 1.9 million vehicles cut from factory output.
