According to foreign media reports, a few days ago, car companies including German Volkswagen, BMW and Porsche have announced that they will suspend production in some domestic factories, and there is a common reason behind this: insufficient supply of wiring harnesses. At present, German car companies are working hard to purchase key automotive wiring harnesses. Due to the situation in Russia and Ukraine, wiring harness suppliers in western Ukraine have been forced to suspend production or reduce production.

　　(Image credit: Leoni)

　　Automotive wiring harnesses are a critical set of components, a key part of a vehicle's electrical system, used to run miles of automotive cables, and without them a car cannot be built.

　　German Leoni has two wiring harness factories in western Ukraine, located in Stray and Koromia. But given the current situation in Russia and Ukraine, production at these two plants has been interrupted, and Leoni is busy making up for the loss of production at the Ukrainian plant in other regions. In addition, the company has formed a task force to assess developments.

　　Previously, suppliers including Germany's Forschner, Kromberg & Schubert, Prettl, SEBN and Japan's Yazaki have established huge wire harness production bases in Ukraine due to lower labor costs and more skilled labor in Ukraine.

　　According to Ukrainian government data, about 22 global auto companies have invested more than $600 million in 38 Ukrainian factories, employing more than 60,000 Ukrainians, many of which make wiring harnesses (though not just wiring harnesses). The plants are geographically close to German car factories and low-cost manufacturing centers established by German automakers in Central Europe.

　　According to an analysis of 2020 Comtrade data by consultancy AlixPartners, wiring harnesses are the most important auto parts exported by Ukraine to the EU, accounting for nearly 7% of EU wiring harness imports.

　　Some assembly plants at Volkswagen, the world's second-largest carmaker, have experienced bottlenecks in the delivery of wiring harnesses, while production at the Leipzig plant of its luxury brand Porsche has been suspended. Rival BMW, which has also been affected, said in a statement: "Our production will be disrupted due to a bottleneck in the supply of wiring harnesses. We are in advanced discussions with our suppliers."

　　Sam Fiorani, vice president of global automotive forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, said: "With the Russian-Ukrainian situation, the wiring harness supply problem is unlikely to disappear soon, and automakers need to find alternative wiring harness suppliers in the short and medium term." While other wiring harness suppliers may It will take several months to add capacity elsewhere, as capacity expansion requires more factory floor space, machines and tools, workers and capital.

　　This article is reproduced from Gasgoo