PRAGUE -- Skoda will halt production at its Kvasiny plant for at least a week from Sept. 11 and did not rule out limiting output at its main plant in Mlada Boleslav due to a shortage of parts.
The automaker said the reason for the shortage was flooding at a supplier of parts for combustion engines in Slovenia, which affected the whole Volkswagen Group.
"Due to a disruption in the provision of components across the Volkswagen Group's supply chain, Skoda Auto will also face shortages in the upcoming period," Skoda said in a statement confirming the halt at Kvasiny in the east of the country, as reported by Czech media earlier.
"At the moment, we cannot rule out any changes to production volumes at the Mlada Boleslav plant, where production is currently running without alterations.
"Our teams are working diligently to minimise any potential impact and deliver as many cars as possible to our customers," it added.
Skoda will halt production at its plant in the eastern Czech town of Kvasiny for at least a week starting Monday, Sept. 11 and may limit output at its main plant in Mlada Boleslav due to a shortage of parts originating from Slovenia, news agency CTK said.
The reason is flooding at a Slovenian supplier of parts for combustion engines. The disaster has affected the entire VW Group, it said.
The floods have halted production at KLS Ljubno, a Slovenian gear rings manufacturer that supplies more than 80 percent of Europe's automotive market. KLS Ljubno hopes to be able to restart some production in October.
The floods have caused wider problems for VW as the automaker has been forced to reduce working hours for employees at its home plant in Wolfsburg, which builds the Golf and Tiguan. Short-time work measures will be in place from Sept. 11-29, VW has said.
The automaker is also cutting production at its commercial vehicles factory in Hanover. In addition, there will be isolated shift cancellations at VW's plant in Emden, Germany.
VW is also pausing production at its factory in Portugal between Sept. 11 and Nov. 12. The factory builds theT-Roc small crossover.
The car industry, the backbone of Czech manufacturing, has outperformed other sectors, which have mostly been stagnant or weakening this year.
Toyota’s Czech-based plant has had an outage since Aug. 22, which will last at least until Sept. 15, due to a fire at a Czech supplier, CTK reported on Thursday.
