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March - April 2021
Continued from Page 7 Then this year, a series of natural disasters at automo ve chip plants deepened the shortage; NXP cites weather-related issues in Texas in the dispute with JVIS. JVIS does not buy chips directly from NXP, instead ge ng them through layers of suppliers and distributors. But it alleges that NXP created an oral contract with it during a Zoom call that NXP held with JVIS, a chip distributor and a circuit board supplier to JVIS. NXP denies that claim, saying the call was an industry-standard status update from a distributor. In a lawsuit filed March 31 in state court in Michigan that was later moved to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, JVIS alleged that NXP later reduced the number of chips it would deliver by tens of thousands from what JVIS had expected. JVIS had alleged the shor all will cause it to stop produc on by April 19, which in turn will cause a shutdown of Stellan s produc on at its Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit within the first 10 days of May. Stellan s declined to comment a er the ruling on the poten al impact of a JVIS shutdown. An NXP spokeswoman declined to comment on the case. During the court hearing on Friday, NXP a orney Marc Collier said the company had scant supplies a er a February freeze in Texas cost it five weeks of producon me and 700,000 lost or delayed chips and was going to great lengths to deliver what it could. The distributors JVIS works with have “ordered a box of cereal from us, and we are sending it one cornflake at a me. As soon as it comes off the factory line, it goes on a FedEx plane,” Collier said during the hearing. JVIS had alleged it asked NXP for 70,000 chips for the Jeep plant in the second quarter. In late February, JVIS alleged, NXP and a chip distributor said during a Zoom call that they would supply to JVIS 42,000 chips for the Detroit plant. JVIS alleged the call created an oral contract, submi ng as evidence a photograph of a computer screen with numbers on it. JVIS alleged NXP and the chip distributor reduced its order to 27,000 chips in late March. Source: www.autonews.com
Stellantis idles Ontario minivan output until May 3 due to chip shortage Stellantis will idle its minivan plant in Windsor, Ontario, until the end of April, due to the global microchip shortage. Production is scheduled to resume May 3, the automaker said. The Chrysler Pacifica, Voyager, Grand Caravan and Pacifica Hybrid minivans are all built at the Windsor Assembly Plant.“Stellantis continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry,” the automaker said in a statement. Continued on Page 9
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