Invasion in Ukraine hampers supply of electrical harnesses to automakers

Automakers including Volkswagen, BMW and Porsche are scrambling to obtain electrical harnesses as supply units in western Ukraine have been shut down by the Russian invasion.

The production of this element, necessary to organize kilometers of vehicle cables, affected suppliers such as Leoni, Fujikura and Nexans, and affected large automakers.

Delivery bottlenecks have already hit some plants at the world’s second-largest automaker, Volkswagen, while Porsche’s luxury unit has suspended production at its plant in Leipzig, Germany. Rival BMW was also affected.

“Due to supply bottlenecks, there will be interruptions to our production,” BMW said in a statement. “We are in intense discussions with our suppliers.”

Leoni, which has two factories in western Ukraine, said it was struggling to “compensate for production losses” and “disruptions at our two factories in Stryi and Kolomyja, triggered by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine,” the company said. in a statement.

Suppliers such as Germany’s Forschner, Kromberg & Schubert, Prettl, SEBN and Japan’s Yazaki have built a robust wire harness production sector in Ukraine, which has skilled, low-cost labor.

According to an analysis of Comtrade’s 2020 data by consultancy AlixPartners, harnesses were the most critical automotive component exported from Ukraine to the European Union, accounting for nearly 7% of all imports of this product.

Sweden’s Volvo Cars and Britain’s Aston Martin said they have no harness suppliers in Ukraine.

It can take months for suppliers to increase capacity at other locations – requiring factory space, machinery and tools, labor and financing.

Before the invasion, auto parts maker Aptiv spent months doing just that — shifting high-volume production of vehicle parts from its two factories in Ukraine ahead of potential hostilities, the company’s chief executive said last week.