Ukraine – Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is exacerbating supply bottlenecks for German automakers. They expected “sensitive effects on supply and logistics chains with repercussions on factories in Germany and Europe, but also elsewhere”.
That’s what the President of the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), Hildegard Müller, said in the new edition of “Automobilwoche”. Deliveries from Russia and Ukraine failed to materialise. Ukraine is a center of wire harness manufacturing, which is now idle.
The purchasing manager of the Audi Group, Dirk Grosse-Loheide, told the trade journal: “That will give us headaches for many weeks to come.” The first replacement deliveries for urgently needed cable harnesses are now coming from Romania. “We’ve been in production for about ten days,” said Grosse-Loheide.
According to information from “Automobilwoche”, Ford in Saarlouis is missing not only cable harnesses but also parts for the steering wheels of the Ford Focus, which would normally also come from the Ukraine.
The car manufacturers are therefore helping their suppliers to relocate production to safe locations. According to information from “Automobilwoche”, the two automotive suppliers Aptiv and Leoni are to expand their capacities in other plants.
“We are trying to keep production going with our suppliers. We are also looking into doing this temporarily in other countries,” said Porsche boss Oliver Blume of the trade journal. According to the report, BMW and Mercedes-Benz also help unbureaucratically.