Everyone has an opinion on when the semiconductor chip shortage might end these days. Ford CEO Jim Farley believes things will begin to get back to normal by Q3 of this year, while some government officials and chipmakers think it will continue for a year or even several more years. However, Mexican automotive lobby group Industria Nacional de Autopartes (INA) believes that conditions will improve as soon as the second half of July, with a complete recovery coming by the end of the year, according to Reuters.
INA’s head of foreign trade, Alberto Bustamante, backed up the automotive lobby group prediction by pointing to growing vaccination rates across the globe as a good sign that things will soon be back to normal. Bustamante also noted that Mexico’s automotive parts output is expected to increase by 18 percent this year, to $92.4 billion, following a 20 percent decline last year, with a full recovery expected by 2022.
These predictions are notable for a number of reasons. A handful of important new FoMoCo vehicles are produced in Mexico, including the Ford Bronco Sport, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and soon, the Ford Maverick, at the Ford Cuautitlan Assembly Plant and Ford Hermosillo Assembly Plant. Additionally, according to Bustamante, every vehicle assembled in America also contains around $5,500 in Mexican parts.
A quicker recovery would also be great news for Ford in general, as it has been forced to cut more vehicles from its North American production schedule as a result of the chip crisis than any other automaker. Ford recently said that it could lose up to 50 percent of its planned output in Q2 alone and that it doesn’t expect dealers to receive any meaningful inventory until August, at the earliest. Meanwhile, the automaker is working on making several changes to its supply chain to prevent similar issues from surfacing in the future.
We’ll have more on the chip shortage soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
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It would be good for lots of people & businesses if things did work out!