The car manufacturer is driving because of supply bottlenecks ford down its production. Short-time work had been requested for the coming week, and the Fiesta factory work was then suspended, a Ford spokeswoman said on Friday. She didn’t give any reasons.
According to a report in the “Bild” newspaper, this is due to components that a supplier in the Ukraine manufactured and now because of the war cannot deliver as ordered for the time being. Among other things, it is about cable harnesses. In addition, semiconductors from Asia are still scarce – which is why the car company had to suspend production several times last year.
This week, the workforce working in Fiesta production has already been on short-time work for three days. This is how it should continue for the entire coming week. After that, there are two weeks of Easter holidays, and the plant doesn’t produce any Fiestas anyway – that was already determined beforehand. Fiesta manufacturing could ramp up again on April 25.
Cologne is the European headquarters of the US car manufacturer. In addition to car production, the location is also important as a development center. A third of the 14,800 Ford employees in Cologne work in the production of the small car Fiesta.
In the long term, however, production will be phased out as Ford wants to switch completely to electric cars. To this end, the group will invest two billion dollars (1.8 billion euros) in the site in the coming years. By the year 2024, Ford would like to have a total of three new electric cars and four new electric vans launch.
Production stop also in the USA
Previously, Ford and General Motors (GM) announced that it would also stop production at two US plants due to the parts shortage. The two car manufacturers want to temporarily stop production in one plant each in the US state of Michigan in the coming week due to a shortage of parts.
According to Ford management, the lack of semiconductors is the reason for the decision. GM announces that production at the Lansing Grand River plant will be discontinued. However, the production stop is not related to chips, and the company did not give any further details.