The US car brands Ford and Chevrolet have taken the worst hit by the global microchip shortage, with almost 370,000 vehicles taken out of the production as of May.
According to data presented by BuyShares.co.uk, when car factories in the US and across the globe closed in the early days of the Covid-19 last spring, many carmakers made what has turned out to be a critical error. They cancelled orders for the microchips essential to the manufacture and operation of new cars.
Although demand for new cars has returned, the microchips, vital for everything from a vehicle's onboard computer to safety features and infotainment system, have been in short supply around the world for months, and the problem could take a couple of years to resolve.
The fire at an automotive chip plant in Japan, tighter supply chains after the Ever Given grounding in the Suez Canal, and the lack of oil for the plastic used in chips all came as a new shock after the pandemic, causing carmakers huge problems with sourcing the microchips.
The global microchip shortage and the massive production cuts significantly impacted US carmakers' stock prices. The YCharts data show Ford's market capitalisation dropped by $7.8 billion in the last month, falling from $63.7 billion in June to $55.9 billion last week.
Chrysler Stellantis lost $2.6 billion in market cap in this period. Statistics show the combined market cap of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler Stellantis as the "Big Three" US carmakers plunged by $18.8 billion in the last month.
