Skoda Auto To Halt Production At Kvasiny, Mlada Boleslav

Škoda Auto will significantly reduce production in all its Czech plants in the next one to two weeks. The reason is the lack of chips that are used in onboard electronics. Several operations will be stopped in Mladá Boleslav, the entire plant in Kvasiny is to be stopped.

“Currently, we assume that the availability of chips will be so limited in the next one to two weeks that integrated production will no longer be possible,” said Gillich. According to the unions, the MBII welding shop, the MBII assembly plant, and the MB A paint shop will be shut down in Mladá Boleslav. Limited traffic will also affect the MB B paint shop, always in the morning and night shifts. Afternoon shifts will be dropped.

Trade unions continue to push for full daily earnings, beyond the law, for all employees affected by this situation. “Once again, we negotiated compensation in the amount of 85 percent of the average wage,” said union leader Jaroslav Povšík. Extraordinary bonuses are also included in the average wage.

In an interview Wednesday with iHned.cz, the head of Škoda Auto’s production and logistics, Michael Oeljeklaus, said that due to the lack of chips, up to 5,000 cars a week go unfinished. The company has approximately 33,000 incomplete cars in parking areas. The carmaker lacks the ESP control unit in the octaves and the window control units in practically all models the most. According to Oeljeklaus’ estimate, chip deliveries could improve by the end of the year.

The chips are used by car manufacturers in on-board electronics; not only Škoda Auto has a problem, but all world car manufacturers. Demand for chips exceeds supply, and chip production has been complicated by, among other things, winter snowstorms in Texas, where large chipmakers have had to stop or reduce production. The coronavirus pandemic is also affected by chip deficiency.

In March, Toyota had to stop production due to a lack of chips, and Toyota’s production lines stopped for 14 days. Production is now continuing here. “We are constantly monitoring the situation, which often changes not only in the automotive industry,” Tomáš Paroubek, a spokesman for Toyota in Cologne, told ČTK today.

Production will also stop for one day at the Hyundai car plant in Nošovice in the Frýdek-Místek region on Friday. The reason is the failure of parts from subcontractor Yura from Tunisia. The assumption is that the outage will be replaced over the weekend and production will continue on Monday.