The Bosch factory in Braga, employing around 2,500 people, has returned today to ‘full working’ after three weeks of lay-off – but warns that future hiatus could well be around the corner.
The shortage of components (namely semi-conductors) that prompted the lay-off stems from a lack of supply from Chinese company Nexperia (based in Holland, but supplied by China).
As the shortages were becoming clear, and starting to cause real disruption in European factories producing car electronic systems and other consumer products, the Dutch government seized control of Nexperia, causing Beijing to respond by blocking Nexperia products from leading China… All this deepened supply problems, thus Bosch’s decision to impose lay-off at its plants in both Germany and Portugal.
Now that a truce appears to be on the horizon, Bosch is lifting the terms of its lay-off, stressing that it cannot exclude future production interruptions and/ or adjustments to working hours.
Ensuring that it is “giving absolute priority to all fronts” in order to maintain its supply chains and avoid or minimise production restrictions, Bosch says it is “looking to the future with confidence”, despite the current situation continuing to “pose significant challenges”.
Sources: SIC/ LUSA/ autonews
