General Motors Co. Chevrolet Traverse sport utility vehicles (SUVs) sit on the assembly line of the Lansing Delta Township assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan, on Friday, February 21, 2020.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
General Motors ’vehicle sales and production will be hardest hit by global chip shortages during the second half of the year than previously expected, its chief financial officer said Friday.
The shortage will reduce GM’s wholesale shipments of about 200,000 vehicles to North America during the second half of the year compared to the 1.1 million it delivered in the first half of the year, the CFO Paul Jacobson during an RBC Capital Markets conference. This reduction is double the 100,000 units expected when GM reported second-quarter revenue in August.
Despite the increase, Jacobson said the company maintains its most recent guidelines for 2021.
“We will continue to deliver a year higher than we originally thought in January,” said Jacobson, who added that much of the impact will occur in the third quarter.
GM last month raised its full-year adjusted targeting to $ 11.5 billion to $ 13.5 billion, or $ 5.40 to $ 6.40 per share, $ 10,000 to $ 11 billion, or $ 4.50 to $ 5.25 per share.
Low levels of car and truck inventory amid tough consumer demand have led to a record price on new and used vehicles, producing wider profit margins for automakers like GM and its financing companies.
The new impact of 200,000 vehicles continues GM announcing or extending downtime last week for almost all of its plants in North America for varying periods of time.
Jacobson said the company expects 2022 to be a “more stable year” for the semiconductor supply chain, even if it “does not return to completely free levels.”
Automakers, including GM, have declined to release new forecasts as they expect the impact of chip shortages on earnings due to the volatility of the situation. Previously, they predicted billions in losses due to the problem, much of which has been offset by higher profits from record vehicle prices.
The shortage of semiconductor chips is expected to cost the global auto industry $ 110 billion in revenue by 2021, according to a May forecast by consulting firm AlixPartners.