Porsche concerned about delays due to Red Sea disruption, regional head says

Luxury car maker Porsche is concerned about potential delays due to the disruption of shipping in the Red Sea, although there has been no impact on production so far, its regional head has said.

“It's a concern currently in terms of delays or product arrival. But that's really all for now,” Manfred Braunl, chief executive of Porsche Middle East and Africa, told The National on Friday, on the sidelines of a press briefing.

“So, we all hope for the best [and for the conflict to end].”

The escalating conflict in the Red Sea, as attacks on shipping vessels by Yemen's Houthis intensify in retaliation against Israel's bombardment of Gaza, has reignited inflationary fears and concerns over supply chains.

Shipping companies have suspended operations on the route and are rerouting through the Cape of Good Hope, which, in turn, is adding more time and cost.

The route joins Eastern Asia and Europe to the southern parts of Africa.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla on Friday said it was suspending most car production at its factory near Berlin for two weeks from the end of this month, due to a squeeze on component supplies.

“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,” it said.

The latest shipping disruption threatens to derail supply chains just as they were steadying following the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, which began in February 2022.

For Germany's Porsche, waiting times for some of its models, which had been extended to more than a year during the peak of disruptions, have now normalised, more or less, to pre-pandemic levels, Mr Braunl said.

“Waiting times in general have been significantly reduced. And if I compare this to two years ago, and it still depends a little bit also on the model line, … we are going now back to kind of a normal one,” he said.

“When the war in Ukraine started, there were a lot of suppliers affected. And, of course, this had immediately also an impact on the production. So, it was a mix of suppliers and also of logistics, and both of these things have significantly improved right