FRANKFURT — Volkswagen Group’s prime three manufacturers have pointed to an ongoing scarcity of automotive chips that might intensify within the coming months, highlighting the trade’s problem in tackling the problem.

“Though there are indicators that the provision bottlenecks for semiconductors are starting to ease, we count on a really difficult third quarter from a provide perspective,” mentioned Alexander Seitz, chief monetary officer of VW’s namesake model.

Volkswagen had mentioned on Thursday that misplaced manufacturing as a result of disaster, which began to hit the automotive trade on the finish of 2020, at the moment stood at a excessive six digit variety of autos.

Volkswagen nonetheless managed to supply report earnings for the primary half of 2021, favoring high-margin Porsches and Audis in its allocation of chips, a key part in trendy autos.

“Regardless of all this success, we’re effectively suggested to maintain each toes on the bottom,” Porsche CFO Lutz Meschke mentioned. “As a result of whatever the uncertainties of the coronavirus pandemic, the persevering with tense state of affairs on the semiconductor market may turn into noticeable within the third quarter.”

Volkswagen, which has been hit by the bottleneck together with rivals Daimler, BMW, GM and Ford, on Thursday mentioned it had managed the state of affairs fairly effectively, but additionally highlighted “some impression” within the third quarter to September.

Audi, Volkswagen’s greatest revenue contributor, on Friday mentioned there have been indicators that the months forward could be marked by a important provide state of affairs.

“Audi continues to work intensely on counter-measures, however in view of the persevering with scarcity it’s not anticipated to be doable to compensate in full in the middle of the 12 months for misplaced manufacturing,” it mentioned.