Tata: Chip shortage continues to hurt Jaguar sales
INDIA’S Tata Motors announced its sixth straight quarter of losses last Wednesday (27) as inflation, Covid lockdowns in China and chip shortages hurt sales volumes at British subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
Net losses widened to `50.07 billion (£513.3 million) in the June quarter, compared to a loss of `44.51bn in the same period last year for the Mumbai-based automaker. Revenue from operations rose 8.3 per cent year-on-year to
`719.35bn with a post-pandemic demand bounce, even as sales at JLR fell 11.3 per cent to £4.41bn.
Continued shortages of semiconductor chips – a key component in car manufacturing – in addition to Covid-19 lockdowns in China and rising raw material costs hurt JLR sales, the company said.
JLR chief Thierry Bollore said the firm had reinforced its organisational setup to respond to those headwinds. “This is now starting to recover production growth to achieve greater volumes and will allow us to take advantage of our record order book,” Bollore said in a statement.
Orders at JLR, which is Britain’s biggest carmaker, rose to 200,000 in the quarter.
Revenue from Tata Motors’ commercial vehicle business jumped 107.2 per cent year-onyear to `162.70bn, as India bounced back from a 2021 pandemic sales dent. But commercial vehicle exports fell 22.6 per cent in the quarter, the company said, due to weak demand in some overseas markets.
Demand for passenger vehicles remained strong, with revenues up 122.5 per cent on-year to `115.56bn. The company said it sold 9,300 electric vehicles in the quarter, four times as many as in the same quarter last year.
“We expect demand to remain strong despite worries on inflation and geo-political risks while the supply situation is expected to improve further,” the automaker said in a statement.