The global semiconductor shortage will cut Chinese carmaker SAIC Motor’s output by about 200,000 vehicles, according to people familiar with the matter.

The preliminary estimate was made internally at SAIC, a joint venture partner of Volkswagen and General Motors. The figure is equal to around 3.6 per cent of the 5.6 million vehicles the company delivered last year, and 3.2 per cent of its 6.17 million sales target for this year, said the people, who asked not be named because the information isn’t public. SAIC is trying to secure chip supply and is adjusting production to minimise the impact of the shortage, the people said.

The chip shortage, and a winter storm that devastated Texas in February, probably cost carmakers production of about 1.3 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2021, according to IHS Markit. On top of that, a fire at major auto-chip supplier Renesas Electronics could disrupt operations in Japan and the US for at least a month, leaving the industry’s second-quarter output “as exposed” as in the first three months of the year, the researcher said. Supply may not stabilise until the fourth quarter, according to the firm’s analysts.