Czech Škoda Auto continues to cancel production shifts

Automobile company Škoda Auto continues with the cancellation of shifts in production. Some shifts are canceled at the main production plant in Mladá Boleslav, but also in Kvasiny. Traffic in Vrchlabí should be unrestricted. This was reported today by the weekly Škodovácky Odborář. The reason is the long-term shortage of some parts.

"The Škoda company again discussed the situation in production with the KOVO Trade Union and although it seemed to have calmed down in recent weeks, unfortunately the disruption of shifts at Škoda Auto continues," the weekly reported. For example, in Mladá Boleslav some shifts in the paint shop and assembly are canceled this week, in Kvasiny all Saturday shifts are canceled this week. Next week, the assembly and welding plant in Mladá Boleslav will have the most canceled shifts, where not all night shifts will take place. Next week in Kvasiny, the night shift from Tuesday to Wednesday and all Saturday shifts will be canceled in all car production operations. "No restrictions are reported for Vrchlabí," the unions said.

Automakers are struggling with a shortage of parts that began during the coronavirus pandemic. For example, Škoda Auto was missing chips for on-board electronics, due to a January fire at one of its suppliers, the company was also missing door panels. The outage also occurred with USB ports, for example. Škoda will not be able to produce a million cars this year, but anything over 800,000 cars will be a positive result, Jaroslav Povšík, chairman of the works council, told ČTK earlier.

Due to the crisis, the employees of the Mladá Boleslav car company did not work a total of millions of working hours, for which the company paid above-standard wage compensation. In recent years, the covid-19 pandemic, the global shortage of chips for on-board electronics, the war in Ukraine and now the energy crisis have brought problems to Škoda Auto.

In the first half of this year, Škoda Auto delivered 360,600 cars to customers worldwide, which is a year-on-year decrease of 30 percent. Operating profit fell to EUR 676 million (CZK 16.6 billion) from last year's comparable EUR 974 million (CZK 23.9 billion). The decrease was mainly caused by higher production costs and unfavorable exchange rate developments. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict also affects the results. Sales for January to June remained almost unchanged year-on-year and amounted to 10.2 billion euros (250.4 billion CZK).

Source: CTK