ISLAMABAD, SEPT 8: Pak Suzuki is making headlines with intense news. After the discontinuation of Suzuki Swift, the company has suspended the bookings for Suzuki Cultus. Suzuki dealerships across the country are instructed to halt the bookings until further notice.

Next to Alto, Suzuki Cultus is the company’s second-best player in the market. As per PAMA car sales reports, on average, around 15,00 Cultus units are sold every month. Putting the car’s bookings off will definitely affect the company’s profits. That brings us to the question: why did Pak Suzuki make this troublesome decision?

Not Enough Chips for the Cars

The same thing that’s poisoning the sales of BMW, Ford, Tesla, and Toyota has now infected Pak Suzuki. The global semiconductor chip shortage. Like every other company, Pak Suzuki does not have enough semiconductor chips to run its cars, which led the company to halt the bookings for one of its best-selling cars. 

The global semiconductor chip shortage is hammering automakers all over the world, forcing them into shutdowns. Companies around the globe are losing billions of dollars in lost production and sales. 

Overall, the global auto industry will produce 4 million fewer vehicles than planned and lose $110 billion in sales. The biggest names in the international auto market are feeling the heat of this crisis. Unfortunately, the global chip crisis has started to slowly take down our local auto industry.

It’s not the first time we are hearing about a local company halting the car bookings. Hyundai-Nishat, Al-Haj Proton, and others have already done it, and now it’s Pak Suzuki’s turn to face the storm.

Experts say the global chip crisis might last until 2023. All the car production crunches will go away eventually, just not in the near future. Even after the crisis is over, it will take another year or so for the auto industry to recover.