North American vehicle production has been the worst affected by the shortage in the supply of semiconductors, including for its high-profit, low-inventory vehicles, according to the latest research from AutoForecast Solutions. It comes at a time of very high demand for vehicles in a market rebounding from the Covid lockdown. The question is, how will leading vehicle makers in the region position themselves so that this does not happen again?

Kicking off discussions at this week’s Finished Vehicle Logistics North America Live conference, Joe McCabe, president and CEO, AutoForecast Solutions (AFS), said that the impact of the semiconductor shortage on production volumes globally was forecast to equal 4.57m units this year, with 285 plants impacted around the world (as of June 15).