Czech carmaker Skoda Auto, part of the Volkswagen group, will halt production at two plants for a week at the end of September due to chip shortages.
Skoda has thousands of cars unfinished as it waits for chips.
“Recent COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia, for example in Malaysia, are forcing semiconductor manufacturers to close their factories again. This has resulted in adjustments to car production, and Skoda Auto is also affected,” the company said in an emailed response to Reuters questions.
Skoda Auto will therefore stop production lines in the Mlada Boleslav and Kvasiny plant in calendar week 39. It did comment on any impact on its third Czech site, components factory at Vrchlabi.
Skoda said it expected semiconductor production to be ramped up in the fourth quarter.
Skoda is one of three carmakers in the central European country. The other two are South Korea’s Hyundai Motor and Japan’s Toyota Motor.
Toyota has also been forced to halt production at its Czech plant for periods in the past few months.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s Spanish unit SEAT plans to extend partial car assembly suspensions at its plants near Barcelona well into 2022 because of the chip shortage.
