By Victoria Waldersee
BERLIN (Reuters) -Tesla will suspend most car production at its factory near Berlin from Jan. 29 to Feb. 11, the company said on Thursday, citing a lack of components due to shifts in transport routes because of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
The U.S. electric vehicle maker is the first company to disclose a interruption to output due to the disruption. Many including Geely, China’s second-largest automaker by sales, and Ikea have warned of delays to deliveries.
“The armed conflicts in the Red Sea and the associated shifts in transport routes between Europe and Asia via the Cape of Good Hope are also having an impact on production in Gruenheide,” Tesla said in a statement.
“The considerably longer transportation times are creating a gap in supply chains.”
Militants have stepped up attacks on vessels the Red Sea in recent months to show their support for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas fighting Israel in Gaza, forcing for the past three weeks the world’s top shipping companies to avoid the Suez Canal, the fastest maritime route from Asia to Europe.
The waterway accounts for about 12% of global maritime traffic. Shipping giants such as Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have been sending their vessels on longer, more expensive journeys around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
The Danish shipping company said on Friday it expects the rerouting to last for the foreseeable future.
The extra route adds about 10 days in a journey from Asia to northern Europe and about $1 million in extra fuel.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Christoph Steitz, Josephine Mason and Nick Zieminski)
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