Suzuki pausing Swift production begins affecting industry

The escalation of mutual sanctions and tariffs between countries housing some of the world’s leading car manufacturers is starting to affect shipments.

Two months ago, the United States and Europe enacted higher tariffs on vehicles and parts imported from China. In return, China partially restricted rare earth exports into these economies. Rare earths are widely used in semiconductor manufacturing worldwide, so it led to a shortage of microchips in the industry.

As it has now been revealed, Suzuki had stopped its assembly lines in Japan for two weeks when these retaliation measures were announced. For two weeks, the Swift subcompact for Japan was not produced due to a lack of components. The same incident has led to a disruption in BMW supply chains as well.

Right now, it looks like the supply troubles may continue for a while unless China and the USA reach an agreement on the tariffs.