Mercedes says supply constraints to continue affecting auto sector this year

The auto industry has been facing an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips and it has drastically affected the auto industry. The shortage continues to remain and plague the auto industry. It is unlikely to be resolved this year and the situation may improve only in 2023, Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and CEO Martin Schwenk told PTI.

He added that the product lineup from the brand continues to have a strong orderbook which is increasing. At present, Mercedes-Benz has over 5,000 open orders, and continues to witness its order book increase, including in June.

However, the company continues to be cautious about the global economic uncertainties and geopolitical crisis that has been impacting the Indian auto industry. “(This has put) a question mark over how things would be in the next six to 12 months," he said.

Schwenk added that the supply situation has still not improved and there is a congestion at harbours and shipments. "We have missing components in our production. So I would say unfortunately, the future remains very hard to predict as well," Schwenk told PTI in an interview.

He stressed that this will not change anytime soon and any hope for improvement is only for next year, and not before that. While speaking about the geopolitical situation, he said, "The level of instability has not improved. Things have even gotten more volatile, even compared to say, three, four months ago."

While talking about the impact of global uncertainties and other external factors on consumer sentiments in the country, Schwenk said that the company will have to monitor the situation and see what is happening. “We have inflation topics, we have pricing topics. So we were forced several times to increase prices, mostly because input cost was going up," he said.