Ford announced this week that its profit for the second quarter fell to $561 million, about 50% less than what the company achieved last year, due to the crippling chip shortage.
However, the automotive giant said the results were better than expected as it was able to leverage demand though lower incentives and a mix of vehicles.
During the months in the second quarter, Ford had to halt or slow down production of its F-150 pickup trucks and other SUVs. The company also had to slow production of its Mustang Mach-E, its electric model of the classic muscle car.
Ford said that the supply of semiconductors for vehicles is expected to improve in the second half of the year but will remain tight, potentially causing further issues for the company moving forward. Volume is expected to increase by about 30% in the second half due to an improvement in market factors net of production costs, Ford said.
Ford is not the only one continuing to struggle with the ongoing ship shortage.
Just this week, Toyota said it was scheduling another round of suspension of vehicle production at select plants. German automakers Volkswagen and Daimler said this week they were halting or slowing down production in Germany due to the chip shortage. Furthermore, Tesla said while it has had to shift to using alternate chips by updating software, the Cybertruck might be delayed until 2022 because of the ongoing chip issues. General Motors also cut production of its pickup trucks this month.
