Chip shortage expected to cost auto industry $110 billion in revenue in 2021

The ongoing semiconductor chip shortage is now expected to cost the global automotive industry $110 billion in revenue in 2021, according to consulting firm AlixPartners. The forecast is up by 81.5% from an initial forecast of $60.6 billion, which the New York-based firm released in late January when the parts problem started causing automakers to cut production at plants.

Mark Wakefield, global co-leader of the automotive and industrial practice at AlixPartners, said a number of factors have contributed to the increase, including a fire at a plant near Tokyo for chip supplier Renesas and weather-related kinks in the automotive supply chain. “The pandemic-induced chip crisis has been exacerbated by events that are normally just bumps in the road for the auto industry, such as a fire in a key chip-making fabrication plant, severe weather in Texas and a drought in Taiwan,” he said in a press release. “But all these things are now major issues for the industry — which, in turn, has driven home the need to build supply-chain resiliency for the long term.”

AlixPartners is forecasting that production of 3.9 million vehicles will be lost this year as a result of the shortage. That’s up from January’s forecast that estimated the shortage would cut production of 2.2 million vehicles. In the U.S., the shortage has caused the Biden administration to order a 100-day review of U.S. supply chains. About $50 billion of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal also is earmarked for the American semiconductor industry. Automakers such as Ford Motor and General Motors expect the chip shortage to cut billions of their earnings this year. Ford said the situation will lower its earnings by about $2.5 billion in 2021. GM expects the chip shortage will cut its earnings by $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Chip shortage expected to cost auto industry $110 billion in revenue in 2021, CNBC, May 14