Ford's European plants hit by stoppages due to global chip crisis

Ford Motor will severely curtail production at its European plants as the global shortage of microchips that has hit the industry worsens.

The company's factory in Turkey will pause production from April 19 to June 13, including pulling forward a planned summer shutdown, Ford said.

The Transit midsize vans built at the joint venture plant with partner Otosan account for most of the automaker's profits in Europe. The factory had already shut its production lines for two weeks in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ford's factory in Saarlouis, Germany, where it builds the Focus compact, will stop output for an additional 20 days, extending a five-week shutdown that started late February.

Ford will pause production of the Transit Connect compact van in Valencia, Spain from April 28 to July 2. The rest of the plant will stop output for 20 days between now and July 31, affecting production of the Kuga compact SUV, the Mondeo midsize car, and the Galaxy and S-Max minivans.

The two least affected plants are Cologne, Germany, where Ford builds the Fiesta small car, and Craiova, Romania, home of the Puma and EcoSport small SUVs.

Cologne will shut for an undisclosed number of days from April 21 to 23 and April 28 to 30 and the company will "investigate further production cuts for the coming weeks," Ford said in a statement.

The Craiova factory will shut for six days on April 29 and from May 10 to May 14. From April 26 until May 21, Craiova will be operating on two shifts instead of three in its vehicle assembly plant.

The lower impact of the production halts on Cologne and Craiova suggests Ford is protecting output of its two biggest passenger car sellers in Europe, the Fiesta and Puma.

Ford has also cut production at its transmission plant and engine plant in the UK due to the chip supply issue. At Ford's Dagenham engine plant east of London, production of the 2.0-liter EcoBlue diesel engine will move to a single shift for the next three weeks starting from April 26, while an additional 27 non-production days will be implemented on the 1.5-liter EcoBlue diesel line between now and the summer shutdown period.

The V-6/V-8 diesel also built at Dagenham will operate on a single-shift basis from the beginning of May, the company said.

At Ford's Halewood plant on Merseyside, north west England, production of the MT82 six-speed manual transmission will temporarily cease production for four weeks and production of the B6 manual and derivative transmissions will stop for six weeks.

Ford production at key North American plants has also been hit by the global shortage in semiconductor chips, which has been made worse by factors including a fire at a chip factory in Japan, storms in Texas, and increased demand for chips from makers of personal devices such as mobile phones and tablets.