Volkswagen to suspend production at factories in Brazil

Volkswagen will grant collective vacations and suspend production at 3 of its 4 factories in Brazil.

The units in São Bernardo do Campo (SP), São José dos Pinhais (PR) and São Carlos (SP) will stop working for about ten days starting next week, and only the Taubaté plant will continue to produce normally during the month of February.

The automaker will grant collective vacations at the Anchieta factory, in São Bernardo do Campo, from February 22 to March 3, 2023.

The break in production had already been planned since last year and is part of Volkswagen’s strategy to make production processes more flexible due to the shortage of parts that has been affecting the automotive sector in recent years.

The distribution of driver chips, a component of vehicle manufacturing, suffered a bottleneck during the Covid-19 pandemic, making it difficult for automakers around the world to produce. Growing demand for semiconductors from consumer electronics companies has also exacerbated the parts shortage.

Volkswagen claims that it has accelerated production in recent days to supply the network with some products during the break period.

Last year, the automaker took collective vacations twice in less than a month and even reduced the workday and salary of employees at the São Bernardo do Campo plant because of the lack of semiconductors.