After a couple of weeks that saw production cuts totaling fewer than 10,000 vehicles each, North American factories lost 84,000 vehicles last week because of the ongoing worldwide shortage of microchips, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions.
Globally, automakers cut about 280,000 vehicles from their production schedules. Europe accounted for 106,000, and the Asia-Pacific region lost 83,000.
General Motors was responsible for most of the North American reduction, losing more than 50,000 vehicles: 24,000 in the U.S., 22,600 in Mexico and 5,300 in Canada. Toyota Motor North America took up most of the rest for the region’s cut, with nearly 34,000 vehicles lost.
Last week, there were some hopeful tones on the future of production. LMC Automotive is forecasting production and inventories to rebound next year and for things to be closer to normal in 2023. Toyota Motor Corp. last week cut its monthly global production for the third time, but a top procurement manager said the worst appeared to be over.
