PARIS (Reuters) – French companies from the automobile and electronics sectors will be working together in the near-term to improve and fix supply chain glitches that have hit the country’s car industry, said the French finance ministry on Thursday.
Carmakers around the world have been hit by the shortage of chips used in engine management and driver-assistance systems, which mainly come from Asia and especially Taiwan.
Last week carmakers Renault and Stellantis said they had both suspended car production at several factories as they grappled with a worldwide shortage of crucial semiconductors.
The COVID-19 crisis has driven up demand for chips used in electronics such as laptops and phones, and manufacturers are struggling to keep up, with some Chinese suppliers also hit by U.S. sanctions by the former Trump administration.
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)