Forecast: Microchip shortage appears to be softening

Even as auto makers around the world lost 39,600 more vehicles to the global microchip shortage, the forecast for the industry's worst-case scenario continues to soften, according to new estimates from AutoForecast Solutions.

The most recent forecast adjustment represents a tiny percentage change, but the numbers are moving in the opposite direction from the steadily worsening estimates of the past year.

AutoForecast Solutions now projects that a total of 11.31 million vehicles will be cut from schedules this year because of the microchip crisis. That is an improvement from the 11.33 million vehicles it forecast a week earlier.

It suggests that the yearlong microchip crisis, while still a serious problem, has reached its high water mark. Plants in North America, China, the Middle East and Africa reported no additional production cuts last week, according to AutoForecast.

European assembly plants accounted for about two-thirds of all vehicles cut from production schedules last week, with about 21,000 vehicles lost. An additional 12,500 were cut at plants in the Asia-Pacific region outside China, while only 450 were added to the count in South America.

Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastsolutions.com