MILAN, Oct 12 ­­­­— Car production in Italy, home to Fiat and Ferrari, plummeted over 37 per cent in August on a 12-month comparison, due in part to the global semiconductors shortage, official figures showed yesterday.

The 37.4 per cent drop was a sharp acceleration on the 7.4 per cent decline recorded in July, according to the National Statistics Institute (ISTAT).

Production, however, was up 43 per cent in the period between January and August, in comparison with the first eight months of 2020.

The plunge in production in August this year compared to the previous one was partly due to the fact that factories skipped the August closure last year to catch up on time lost to the coronavirus pandemic.

The upheaval caused by the pandemic has given rise to global shortages in a semiconductors, worsened by the leap in demand for electric cars.

Carmakers competing with other chip-intensive industries — such as computers and smartphones — have been forced to scale back production.

Fiat’s Melfi plant in southern Italy has been particularly affected, with production expected to remain below 200,000 units this year, for the first time since 2015, according to the metalworking union Fim-Cisl.

"In the automotive sector, semiconductors are causing production stoppages that are doing more damage than confinements in 2020,” Fim-Cisl said. — AFP