DETROIT – Audi expects the conflict in Ukraine to trigger “super interference” to the worldwide provide chain, an government with the German luxurious model stated Thursday.

The feedback come as automakers globally, together with Audi and its Volkswagen mother or father firm, try to take care of provide chains of essential components resembling semiconductor chips and wire harnesses which are being impacted by the conflict.

Automakers have warned that the battle is creating excessive uncertainty this yr concerning car manufacturing, gross sales and monetary forecasts.

“We’ll see super interference with all the availability chains, not simply the chip enterprise, however any provide chains internationally,” Hildegard Wortmann, head of the automotive firm’s gross sales and advertising and marketing, stated throughout a media roundtable Thursday. “The results can be super out of this on the entire provide state of affairs.”

Whereas Russia and Ukraine account for a small quantity of car manufacturing globally, they provide key uncooked supplies for the manufacturing of semiconductor chips, which have been in brief provide for greater than a yr now resulting from disruptions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Ukraine is also a notable provider of wire harnesses and different supplies, largely for European automakers.

Wortmann stated along with wire harnesses, that are utilized in automobiles for electrical energy and communication between components, the carmaker additionally sources materials for seats from the nation.

Audi on Thursday stated it was adjusting manufacturing at a Hungarian manufacturing plant resulting from provide chain points, Reuters reported. Different automakers resembling Mercedes-Benz and BMW have introduced manufacturing changes or cuts because of the conflict.

Wortmann declined to foretell how the conflict is anticipated to affect the corporate’s gross sales in 2022, citing fluidity of the state of affairs.

S&P World Mobility, previously often known as IHS Markit, on Wednesday downgraded its 2022 and 2023 world mild car manufacturing forecast by 2.6 million items for each years, to 81.6 million for 2022 and 88.5 million items for 2023, because of the conflict.

About 45% of Ukraine-built wiring harnesses are usually exported to Germany and Poland, inserting German carmakers at excessive publicity, in response to S&P.