(Reuters) – Porsche AG shares fell on Tuesday after cutting its sales and profit forecasts ahead of its first-half results, citing an unexpected shortage of aluminum alloys caused by flooding at a supplier site.

The luxury automaker said flooding at a European subcontractor site is affecting its aluminum supply and also raised the possibility of production shutdowns for one or more vehicle series.

Following the incident, Porsche said it now expects revenue of between €39 billion and €40 billion, compared to €40 billion-€42 billion previously. The group, however, confirmed its profit forecast for 2024.

The shortage has also affected the supply chains of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but both have been able to find alternative suppliers. Spokespeople for BMW and Mercedes-Benz declined to provide further details.

On the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, at around 2:35 p.m. GMT, Porsche shares fell by 3.3% to 41.29 euros, among the worst performances of the Dax, which gained 0.76% at the same time.

“A BIBLICAL FLOOD”

“It’s a biblical flood that wiped out the gains from the IPO,” said Stephen Reitman, an analyst at Bernstein Research, referring to Porsche’s historic IPO in September 2022.

According to Bernstein analysts, the flood occurred at a Swiss supplier and would result in the loss of production of at least 10,000 to 17,400 vehicles in the second half of 2024.

At the high end of the range, that figure equates to more than 11 percent of Porsche’s first-half deliveries.

Porsche said it was expected that delays in vehicle production and delivery would not be fully made up for the remainder of the year.

The group now expects sales profitability of between 14% and 15% for the year, compared to 15-17% previously.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Utkarsh Shetti, Kanjyik Ghosh, Andrey Sychev, Christoph Steitz, Nick Carey and Alexander Huebner; Editing by Augustin Turpin)

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