PartsTrader’s Greg Horn said in May his company isn’t seeing any significant disruption in crash parts availability based on the global microchip shortage, which is impacting new vehicle production.
He pointed to a number of data points that led him to that conclusion.
Enterprise’s most recent “length of rental” data showed the average number of days replacement vehicles were in use in the first quarter of 2021 was “essentially flat” when compared to the same quarter in 2020. His company’s internal data showed the average quoted delivery times for parts going through PartsTrader across all model vehicles did not change significantly in the past 13 months.
Looking at parts for just model year 2020 and 2021 vehicles showed even a modest improvement in April, compared to April of 2020. Parts on the system are also receiving the same number of bids or quotes on average over the past year.
“As we look at all those components, we really don’t see any impact on the collision industry, through the middle of May, when it comes to parts shortages,” Horn said. “The only real information we had on collision [parts] shortages…is around the packaging plants that two OEs have in Mexico. They absolutely are reporting they had short staff due to a COVID outbreak in that area. So the parts were there, but the plants were not able to get them packaged into the boxes and shipped out. But that is a very temporary situation and we’re not seeing any big impact from that.”
The global microchip shortage has occurred after microchip production was curtailed last spring early in the pandemic, followed by a sharp uptick in demand for cell phones and gaming devices for those spending much more time at home.
“Meanwhile, as that was ramping up, automotive manufacturers were sort of the last to resume production, and when they started coming back online, they realized they were all of a sudden at the back of the line for ability to buy them,” Horn said.
Microchip producers are working to boost supply, but forecasters don’t expect the shortage to be resolved for some months.
John Yoswick