Chip crunch: Maruti Suzuki to scale down production

Maruti Suzuki, which produces 50 per cent of the cars sold in India, on Wednesday said Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG), a fully owned arm of Japan's giant Suzuki Motor Corporation, will scale down car production this month at its Ahmedabadbased manufacturing plant due to a shortage of semiconductors.

Also, at some of its manufacturing lines, the factory will scale down production from two-shifts to single shift. SMG supplies cars exclusively to Maruti Suzuki.

Maruti said the plant will also tentatively not carry out production on three Saturdays of the month— August 7, 14 and 21.

As the situation is dynamic and uncertain, the company said it will monitor and take day-today decisions on models, lines or shifts to optimise its resources for maximum efficiency.

“Owing to the semiconductor shortage situation, the company has been informed by its contract manufacturing company, SMG, that production will be partially impacted in this month,” the Delhibased company said in a regulatory filing.

Semiconductor chips have become an essential part of the automobile industry and its usage in vehicles has grown globally in recent times.

Apart from Maruti Suzuki, other top car makers, including Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, MG Motor, Nissan, among others, have warned about chip crisis affecting their production.

Tata Motors recently said it has planned various measures to deal with the global semiconductor shortage that has affected its production. The steps include making changes in its product configurations.