Chip shortages make manufacturers prioritise how to allocate resources

The chip shortage is persisting and spreading. But there may be a good side to it after all.

Despite all the moaning and groaning around the lack of semiconductors, automakers globally have posted pretty stellar results even as they’ve had to idle facilities and halt some production.

Hyundai Motor tripled its profits in the first three months of 2021 compared to the same period a year earlier. Orders for Volvo’s trucks more than doubled in the first quarter and operating profit rose 66 per cent. Daimler has forecast that the Mercedes-Benz unit is going to be the most profitable it’s been in years. Profitability for the German company’s cars division rose 15.2 per cent in the first quarter, up from 2.2 per cent.