American automaker Ford Motor has delayed deliveries of some vehicles due to the lack of blue oval badges with the company’s logo.
According to The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, the company is faced with a shortage of nameplates and plates indicating the model, which are attached to the car body and are important identifiers for the automaker’s products.
A spokesman for the company confirmed to the publication that deliveries of a number of vehicles were delayed due to missing badges. This is yet another example of how hard supply chain problems have hit automakers, the WSJ notes.
Ford has been considering a number of workarounds, such as 3D-printed nameplates, until supplies are restored, the sources said. But such substitutes do not inspire confidence, and may not meet the high quality bar of the automaker, the management decided.
Earlier this week, the company warned investors that high inflation and a lack of spare parts were leading to lower supplies. As a result, from 40,000 to 45,000 vehicles will remain in the company’s warehouses by the end of the third quarter due to the lack of a number of parts.
However, Ford reiterated its guidance for 2022, which suggests that adjusted earnings before taxes and interest payments could be $11.5-12.5 billion. In the third quarter, this figure is expected to be in the region of $1.4-1.7 billion.
Ford shares fell 5.4% in trading on Friday. Since the beginning of this year, the automaker’s market value has collapsed by almost 42%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index has fallen by about 23%.
