Rising oil prices, chip shortages, the Russian-Ukrainian war led to an increase in the price of battery raw materials, and the intermittent epidemic led to the inability of many automobile production to be carried out smoothly. In short, there has been no good news about the automotive industry for a long time.
The same is true in South Korea, where auto factories have recently encountered difficulties in production due to a shortage of chips. The problem arises in the supply of "harnesses", which acts as a "neural network" that connects all electronic devices and individual parts of the car. Many automakers around the world, including South Korea, are at risk of having to cut production again.
The world-class wiring harness parts plant is located in China's Shandong Province, but the wiring harness production plant has been discontinued due to the re-spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in Shandong Province. Due to the inability to deliver parts, vehicle production is inevitably delayed.
As a result, hyundai Parristi and Genises GV60, GV70 and GV80 models produced at plant 2 in Ulsan, South Korea, are known to have been affected. If the Chinese supplier's factory shutdown is prolonged, other factories are likely to be affected as well. South Korean car production was interrupted by a lack of wiring harnesses for the first time in two years.
In addition, Russia's invasion of Ukraine also caused problems in the supply and demand of wire harnesses. It is well known that European manufacturers are more affected than Korean manufacturers.
Volkswagen, in particular, has encountered difficulties in securing the supply of wiring harnesses from Ukraine. Volkswagen is looking for suppliers to replace Ukraine, but Volkswagen explained that production cuts are inevitable due to supply chain disruptions.
At the annual media conference held online on the 16th, Volkswagen CEO Ralf Brandstaetter stressed that the supply of wiring harnesses was interrupted due to the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine, resulting in the delay in the production of more than 100,000 new cars this year.
Due to the difficulties in automobile production this year, Standard & Poor's Global Mobility forecasts global vehicle production of 81.6 million vehicles in 2022 and 88.5 million units in 2023, respectively. This is more than 2 million units less than initially estimated.