KUALA LUMPUR (June 19): Proton Holdings Bhd said it is unlikely to experience another shortage of semiconductor chips as the national carmaker has enough for its car production this year.
According to Proton deputy chief executive officer Roslan Abdullah, the global shortage of semiconductor chips driven by heightened demand affected the automotive industry.
“The chip [demand] increase (high demand) was last year, but now it is stable,” Roslan told reporters after the launch of the Proton Digital Experience (Proton DX) centre on Monday (June 19).
In the last three years, he said the national carmaker's shortage of chips was also due to Proton's production being higher than initially planned.
“We are producing more than what we planned earlier. So for the next two years, we already ordered the amount (that we only wanted to produce),” he added.
In April last year, Proton sales declined 32.2% to 8,839 units, mainly due to chip shortage.
However, the carmaker saw a turnaround in April this year with 9,415 units sold, marking a 6.5% increase year-on-year (y-o-y).
Proton’s sales for the first five months of the year stood at 62,970 units, a y-o-y increase of 38.9%, the highest in the Malaysian automotive sales table.
At 2.33pm, shares in Proton’s majority owner DRB-Hicom Bhd rose one sen or 0.72% higher at RM1.40, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM2.71 billion.