The war in Ukraine had barely begun last week when the auto parts supplier Leoni closed its two plants in the cities of Stryji and Kolomyja as a precaution.
Up until a week ago, around 7,000 employees were producing wiring systems for cars in the Leoni factories in western Ukraine.
Just like other international suppliers with locations in Ukraine, including Nexans, Yazaki, Sumitomo, Aptiv, or Kromberg & Schubert.
Automakers are now very short of custom parts that they cannot substitute from stock or other factories.
Because the suppliers are suppliers of products for energy and data management in the automotive industry - and they deliver exactly when needed, "just-in-time".
The loss of production hits Volkswagen and BMW particularly hard.
Christian Muessgens
Business correspondent in Hamburg.
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Henning Peitsmeier
Business correspondent in Munich.
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“The conflict in Ukraine has far-reaching effects on the production of the local supplier industry.
The resulting production losses will gradually lead to production adjustments and interruptions in several BMW plants from the middle of the week,” said a group spokesman for the FAZ.
The production lines also stand still in Oxford, where the Mini is produced.
But that's not all: According to the spokesman, adjustments to the production shifts will also be necessary in the Leipzig and Regensburg plants.
This affects almost the entire European production of the white-blue car manufacturer.
BMW has set up a crisis team.
"The responsible departments are in intensive talks with the suppliers in order to secure the supply via alternative production sites and to start production again as quickly as possible," said the company spokesman.
Bottlenecks widen
First, the VW Group reacted to the supply gap from the Ukraine and ordered short-time work in its plants in Dresden and Zwickau.
Now the bottleneck is spreading to the large VW vehicle plants in West Germany.
As can be seen from a letter to the workforce, the Wolfsburg main plant will only produce to a limited extent from next week.
In the week after next, production should be completely at a standstill.
For the commercial vehicle factory in Hanover, VW is also expecting production downtime from next week.
The Emden site is also likely to be affected, but the plan there has not yet been finalized.
"Our task force continues to work on cross-divisional and cross-brand solutions," says the letter that the FAZ is available.
As in the case of the missing semiconductors, the on-board network bottleneck must now also be overcome.
And that is even more complex.
Because today's cars with all their driver assistance systems require more intelligent on-board networks than ever before.
Countless cables are needed, which are wound together to form a strand weighing around 60 kilograms and laid in the car.
Four to five meters of cable harnesses are installed in a car.
Each part, mostly made by hand, is unique and one of the most expensive components in the vehicle.
At Leoni, too, a separate task force is now following the course of the war and the further effects on the two locations.
The company announced that production should only resume when the political situation permits.
The protection of employees has priority.
Almost 100,000 employees work for Leoni in 30 countries.
The heavily indebted cable and wiring system specialist, in which the Austrian industrial holding Pierer has a stake, is in the middle of restructuring.
The company supplies the wiring systems to Volkswagen, BMW & Co. from its factories, and trucks transport the heavy cable harnesses across the borders every day.
It is a process that cannot easily be substituted.
According to the industry, it takes at least three months, more likely six months, to build up the missing capacities from Ukraine at a location in another country.