MILAN (Reuters) -Stellantis, the world’s fourth largest carmaker, said on Wednesday it expects the global shortage of semiconductors to affect production this quarter more heavily than in the first three months of the year.
The group, which was formed at the beginning of this year through the merger of Italian American Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA, said its first quarter revenues rose 14% to 37 billion euros ($44.5 billion) on a pro-forma basis.
That compares with analyst expectations of 34.9 billion euros, according to a Reuters poll.
Stellantis said in a statement production losses due to the semiconductor shortages amounted to around 11% of planned production in the first three months of the year, or around 190,000 units out of 1.567 million quarterly shipments on a pro-forma basis.
It added it had “limited visibility” over the impact of the semiconductor shortage on its full-year results, but added that while the second quarter would be worse than the first three months it expected some improvements in the second half.
The chip shortage is currently affecting eight out of the group’s 44 assembly plants, Chief Financial Officer Richard Palmer said, adding the issue would likely keep having an impact on the whole automotive industry next year.
He added, however, that the disruption in semiconductor supplies was not affecting the group’s integration plan.
“The integration plan is going ahead extremely positively,” Palmer said in a call with journalists.
“The synergy plan is very much on target.”
($1 = 0.8322 euros)
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and Gilles Guillaume; editing by Agnieszka Flak)
