In first semester of 2022, Stellantis production in Italy fell by 13,7% on an annual basis due the shortage of semiconductors and other components, a problem that will also weigh on activity for the rest of the year and for 2023. This is what the metalworkers' union claims Fim-Cisl in an analysis presented on Monday in Turin by the national secretary Ferdinando Uliano.
The decrease concerns commercial vehicles built in Melfi and Sevel
In detail, the report shows that, between January and June 2022, Stellantis produced in Italy 351.890 vehicles including cars and commercial vans, against 407.666 built in the same period last year. The production of cars increased by 2,1%, to 248.990 units, while that of commercial vehicles it dropped 37,2%, to 102.900 units.
The two plants that suffered the most in Italy were that of Melfi (which experienced a 17% drop in production) and that Sevel for commercial vehicles (-37,2%). The other factories, on the other hand, recorded growing numbers, thanks above all to the production of the Fiat 550, Maserati Grecale and Alfa Romeo Tonale.
Stellantis production: expectations for the future
On the basis of these data, the Fim-Cisl estimates for the end of 2022, a lower production of 200 thousand units compared to 2021, below the threshold of 650 thousand. Compared to pre-Covid (2019), overall production is down by 22,8%, with the auto down by 18,8% ei commercial vehicles down 31%.
"The shortage of semiconductors – explains Uliano – it began to be noticed in terms of production blocks already in the first six months of 2021 but it worsened heavily in the second half of 2021 and continues in a very significant way also in the first half of 2022. A situation that will also condition the year 2023”.
“A geopolitical problem”
According to Fim-Cisl, the issue of supplies of raw materials, semiconductors and bringing the job chain closer "is a geopolitical problem that our country's government must also deal with strategically in the European context - continues the secretary - The outbreak of war in Ukraine, the stop to supplies of Russian gas, the redefinition of flows in the various markets also for the choices that other countries will be able implemented, starting with China, can only make the procurement problem even worse".
For the union, the concerns “regard the workers, who are heavily affected in terms of income and employment by this situation, in addition to the negative repercussions that are cascading throughout the sector. In the automotive sector, a situation of this magnitude had never arisen: the car manufacturers are physically unable to satisfy the orders already acquired. Even the almost four-month delay in the provision of incentives for sustainable mobility certainly had an impact on consumer demand and consequently also on volumes”, concludes Uliano.
