Christina Amann, Nick Carey

(Reuters). Several carmakers, including Germany’s Volkswagen and BMW (DE:), are having difficulty obtaining wire harnesses. Their suppliers in Western Ukraine have been shut down since the Russian invasion. They were forced to cut production.

Producing the part is necessary for organizing thousands of vehicle cables. It has affected suppliers such as Nexans and Fujikura, but it also rippled to large carmakers.

Some assembly plants at world No. 1 have been affected by delivery bottlenecks. 2. Automaker Volkwagen has stopped production of Porsche’s luxury unit at its Leipzig facility.

Also, Rival BMW was affected.

BMW stated in a statement that interruptions of production would occur due to supply shortages. We are currently in intense discussions with our suppliers.

Wire harnesses are a crucial set of pieces that bundle up to 5 km (3.1 mi) of cables inside an average vehicle. Vehicles cannot be constructed without wire harnesses, which are unique to every car model.

Leoni stated that suppliers like Leoni have two wire harness factories located in Ukraine and are trying to compensate for “production losses” and “interruptions at our Stryi-kolomyja plants, caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

Leoni claimed that it has formed a taskforce to examine developments.

Suppliers including Germany’s Forschner, Kromberg & Schubert, Prettl, SEBN and Japan’s Yazaki have built up a hefty wire harness production sector in Ukraine, which has a lower-cost, skilled work force.

AlixPartners conducted a 2020 Comtrade analysis and found that wire harnesses accounted for almost 7% of the total imports from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government has revealed that 22 auto companies spent more than $600million in 38 plants. Many of these factories make wire harnesses, but not all. This means there are over 60,000 Ukrainian employees.

These plants are near German automobile factories and low-cost production hubs, which German carmakers have constructed in central Europe.

Sweden’s Volco Cars

Sam Fiorani (Vice President of Global Vehicle Forecasting, AutoForecast Solutions) stated that “in cases such as this, where the issue cannot be resolved quickly, automakers need to look for alternative solutions in the short and mid-terms.”

Suppliers may take several months to expand their capacity in other areas. This means that they will need factory space, machines and tools as well as workers and funding.

Aptiv Plc, an auto parts manufacturer (NYSE:) Plc, spent several months prior to the invasion shifting large-volume parts production out of two Ukrainian plants ahead of any hostilities.