Luxury German carmaker Porsche says that it’s facing a “severe supply shortage” for aluminum vehicle components, after a factory for a critical European supplier was recently flooded.
In the company’s midyear financial report, Porsche said that the aluminum supplier has notified its customers of a “force majeure” event, meaning that circumstances outside the factory’s control will make it unable to fulfill its contractual obligations to carmakers. Porsche expects the disruptions to affect every vehicle it manufactures, and says that it could be forced to temporarily shut down production for one or more of its vehicle series in the weeks to come. According to Reuters, the aluminum shortage has impacted BMW and Mercedes-Benz as well, although both companies have reportedly been able to find other suppliers.
That’s in the midst of what Porsche calls “a highly challenging macroeconomic environment,” after new EU tariffs on Chinese EVs saw the company’s sales in China dip by 33% year-over-year in July. Given the various obstacles in front of the carmaker, Porsche scaled back its financial outlook for the year in its Q2 report, with expected revenues from sales dropping from €40-42 billion ($43-45 billion) to €39-40 billion. The company also cut its expected return on sales — which represents the ratio of its operating income to net sales — from 15-17% to 14-15%.
