MILAN: Stellantis will extend by one week to Sept. 13 a planned production stoppage at its Melfi plant in southern Italy due to a global microchip shortage, FIM-CISL union said on Tuesday.
The output freeze at Melfi, one of the carmaker’s largest plants in Italy, comes after Stellantis on Monday said it was extending production halts at several plants in Europe due to a shortage of microchips.
“The company has confirmed to unions that the delay was due to a semiconductor shortage on international markets,” FIM-CISL said in a statement.
Production at Melfi has been stopped since mid-August, including a two-week summer holiday period.
Stellantis reiterated the semiconductor shortage was affecting the whole automotive industry.
“From the beginning of the COVID crisis, we drive our activity daily, plant by plant, by adapting our industrial activity to the automotive market trends, and by taking into account the different situations we are facing,” the carmaker said in a statement.
Also Read:
Carmakers, increasingly dependent on electronic components, face stiff competition from the consumer electronics industry for chip deliveries, hit by a series of supply chain disruptions during the health pandemic.
A global chip shortage during the past year has caused a major delay in manufacturing activity and forced several automakers to cut down on production.