Due to the worldwide shortage of semiconductors, Volvo Car Ghent will again introduce a temporary production stop at the end of this week. Belga learned this from the company on Monday. It is not yet known how long the interruption will last.

The Volvo Car factory in Ghent, with 6,500 employees, the largest industrial employer in East Flanders, has been struggling with uncertainty about deliveries since the Christmas period. In February the band was stopped twice because insufficient semiconductors were available. That will happen again at the end of this week.

“Due to the general global shortage of semiconductors, we are calling a production stop at the end of this week”, spokeswoman Barbara Blomme told the Belga news agency. It will comprise ‘a number of shifts’, although Blomme did not want to pin down on a specific duration.

With the lockdown and working from home, the demand for chips for computers and game consoles has increased sharply, while the car industry is also picking up faster than expected. This has led to a global shortage of chips. Several factories are struggling with supply problems.

At Audi Brussels, production will continue for the time being. The factory, which employs about 3,000 people, had to stop work for a week last month because the supply of chips was halted.

‘We are constantly monitoring the situation. If there are any deviations, we will adjust the production, ‘says spokesperson Peter D’hoore. ‘But that is not the case for the time being. We ensure that the logistics flows run smoothly and we hope that nothing goes wrong with the suppliers. There is a shortage of semiconductors on the market. You could be hit at the least that happens. ‘