Bermaz Motor – chip shortage affecting deliveries of Mazda cars in Malaysia; no spec changes planned

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The ongoing semiconductor chip shortage has affected several car companies in Malaysia, and Bermaz Motor is no exception to this. The official distributor of Mazda vehicles here told paultan.org recently that it expects deliveries of certain vehicles to be delayed.

“Our CBU (fully-imported) cars were affected. Production was delayed [in Japan] and we cannot deliver to customers on time,” a Bermaz Motor spokesperson told us. Currently, the Mazda 3, Mazda 6, CX-3, CX-30, CX-9 and MX-5 RF are CBU from Japan, while the Mazda 2 comes from Thailand.

In July this year, Mazda Motor Corporation (that’s Mazda in Japan) revealed that in response to production cuts caused by the chip shortage, it will focus on global control of inventory as well as lean and efficient operations.

“We prioritised supplying vehicles to the United States and Australia where the economy recovered and industry demand rapidly increased. In these markets, sales have been strong and outperformed the industry recovery,” said Tetsuya Fujimoto, managing executive officer at Mazda Motor Corporation.

“We had to reduce the supply of vehicles to Japan, Europe, etc. but we proceeded with efforts to achieve sales recovery including measures to respond to the strong demand for second-hand cars,” he added during his speech on the company’s financial year 2022 (ending March 31, 2022) first quarter results.

As for local assembly (CKD) operations, Bermaz Motor said previously that it is facing constraints in the supply of CKD parts, but it is aiming to push forth and fulfil orders before the year-end. Mazda vehicles that are assembled in Malaysia – specifically at the Inokom plant in Kulim, Kedah – include the CX-5 and CX-8 SUVs, both of which benefit from a 100% sales tax exemption under the Pemerkasa+ (previously Penjana) schemes; it’s just 50% for CBU cars.

The Bermaz Motor spokesperson also confirmed that Mazda vehicles sold here will not see any changes to their specifications as a result of the chip shortage, echoing what Mercedes-Benz Malaysia said previously.



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