Kenyan luxury cars enthusiasts will have to wait longer for their rides after experts warned that the country would suffer a severe shortage in supply.
Speaking during the unveiling of the Land Rover Defender 90, Inchcape Managing Director, Said Hussein Ibrahim, warned automobile distributors to downgrade their 2021 sales forecasts.
This is due to a shortage of the semi-conductor chips used in the manufacture of the cars experienced globally.
Ibrahim noted that that the country was likely to experience a shortage of as much as 30 per cent with orders already placed pushed back by six months.
"It is massive, we are talking 30 or even 40 per cent from what we were projecting earlier in the year. It is quite unfortunate because we have had quite a number of builds."
"Committed orders, build cars in the pipeline being pushed further and further back. Our turn around time used to be two to three months, now we are talking six months at best. Massive supply challenges," he stated.
He further noted that as of now, they can receive three or four Land Rover Defenders a month, a significant reduction from the six cars they received before.
The semi-conductor chip shortage affect a wide range of industries including the gaming one.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) warned that the shortage is expected to drag on for some time.
A spokesperson from the Ministry told South China Morning Post that the shortage was caused by Covid-19 pandemic which slowed down the production capacity.
“The chip supply chain will remain tight for some time, and the current problem is still quite serious,” stated Tian Yulong, the Ministry's spokesperson.
It was estimated that in 2019, 90,000 imported cars joined Nairobi roads in a period of one year showing how steep the demand is.
