BMW plant Regensburg
Production will be suspended for a week from Monday.
(Photo: dpa)
Due to missing components with computer chips, BMW interrupts car production at the Regensburg plant. A one-week break is planned from Monday (July 26), as a spokeswoman said on request on Sunday. After that, a holiday week was planned anyway, so production would resume on August 9th.
The trade journal “Automobilwoche” reported on the production stop. The entire automotive industry is affected by the semiconductor shortage, so that factories from different manufacturers have to repeatedly interrupt production.
At the beginning of the week, BMW had to cut back production at the Leipzig plant. In the past week, the plant in Saxony could only produce on one out of five days. Around 4,000 cars could not have been built because of the production stop.
The Dingolfing and Oxford plants are also affected. As a result, more than 10,000 cars could not be produced at the moment. In some cases, one-shift operation applies, and in some cases work is only carried out on individual days. At the main plant in Munich, however, production is going according to plan.
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How long the bottlenecks lasted is currently unclear, according to BMW. From August onwards, regular production interruptions are scheduled for the German plants anyway, which are used annually for maintenance of the production facilities or for renovations.
The corona wave in Malaysia is also contributing to the chip shortage. The Asian country is an important location for the chip industry. In Malaysia, the number of new infections and the number of fatalities recently reached record highs. Malaysia had ordered a shutdown in the fight against the disease. In this context, chip manufacturers such as Infineon had to close plants on a daily basis at the beginning of June.
Just two weeks ago, BMW announced that the supply situation with semiconductor components would remain tense. Effects on the sales situation in the further course of the year cannot be ruled out. In the second quarter, the Munich-based company left the corona crisis behind with strong sales growth.
More: Lack of chips hits BMW – more than 10,000 cars cannot be built.