Volkswagen Group’s Seat unit will minimize manufacturing at its Spanish manufacturing facility in Martorell, close to Barcelona, due to a scarcity of microchips.

A manufacturing line that builds the Seat Leon and Cupra Leon compact automobiles, and the Cupra Formentor crossover, will work on two shifts per day as a substitute of the present three from Jan. 25 till April, Seat mentioned in an emailed assertion on Wednesday.

This can cut back the variety of automobiles produced per day to 600 from 900, with a lack of 18,000 models over the interval, in keeping with the Spanish enterprise day by day Enlargement.

Some staff might be transferred to a manufacturing line that builds the Seat Ibiza small hatchback and Seat Arona small crossover, which is able to add a 3rd shift due to excessive demand for these fashions, Seat mentioned.

The Ibiza and Arona are based mostly on VW Group’s MQB-A0 platform, which isn’t affected by a worldwide scarcity of semiconductors.

The remaining staff might be quickly laid off.

Seat says manufacturing of the lacking models at Martorell must be recovered throughout the remainder of 2021, except there’s additional disruption attributable to the coronavirus pandemic.

Seat instructed unions that its 2020 manufacturing might be down 30 p.c to 350,000 after a two-month manufacturing cease early this yr due to the pandemic, in keeping with Spanish media.

Manufacturing is anticipated to rise to 483,000 in 2021. Seat constructed an all-time excessive of 500,005 automobiles in Martorell in 2019.

VW Group mentioned on Dec. 18  that it’s adjusting production in Europe, China and the U.S. due to a scarcity of microchips. The transfer will have an effect on manufacturing of VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat fashions based mostly on VW Group’s MQB structure. The platform underpins automotive such because the VW Golf, Audi A3 and Seat Leon.

Semiconductor producers reassigned their manufacturing capacities to different sectors resembling client electronics in the course of the stoop in automotive gross sales earlier this yr attributable to the unfold of COVID-19.