Production at BMW’s US plant may grind to a halt thanks to the volcanic ash cloud phenomenon

The effects of the volcanic ash cloud phenomenon is creeping into the automotive industry. A spokesperson from BMW Mathias Schmidt revealed to Bloomberg that the operations at the company’s plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina may be put on hold if trans-Atlantic flights don’t get the green light within the next two days.

The flight cancelations will disrupt the parts supply chain which involves BMW sending parts to the US plant via air. The Spartanburg plant assembles BMW’s X5 and X6 SUVs and up to 600 cars are rolled out per day. We believe that if the airport shutdown continues, we will see more and more stories on plant shutdowns in the news.

The volcanic ash cloud has been covering airspace in Europe since Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted on April 14th. Airports from Dublin to Moscow have been forced to shut down and it is costing airline companies up to US$300 million a day in revenue.

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Harvinder Sidhu

Harvinder Singh Sidhu thinks there's nothing better than Formula 1, not even sliced bread. Having written about cars since 2006, he plunged head first into the industry out of a passion for all things four-wheeled and everything in between. The F1 enthusiast has been following the sport since 1999 and has been keeping up with it since. In between races he keeps himself busy as the host of the Driven motoring show and as our version of the Joker.

 

Comments

  • kangoroo on Apr 20, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    just wondering How to pronounce “Eyjafjallajökull” volcano? E-ja-fuckya-alla-jo-Cool ?

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    • Yeah some Malaysian Really IDIOTS on Apr 21, 2010 at 10:32 am

      pronunciate it like this “Ei-ha-fhallaho-kull”
      malay pronunciation- Ei-ha-fahal-laho-kul..

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  • osh_kosh on Apr 20, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    the phenomenon will not get better untill saturday… at least that what i heard

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  • Mazda 3 MPS on Apr 20, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    hahaha how does one pronounce Eyjafjallajökull

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  • mystvearn (Member) on Apr 20, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    BMW can, if they wanted to, land transport it to Madrid/Lisbon, and get a flight from there to the US. Spain and Portugal are spared for now.

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    • that way, prices of parts will be more expensive..but hey, if you can afford an X6, i’m sure u can afford anything in the world :D

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      • Hameed Koyakuti on Apr 21, 2010 at 11:53 am

        Thru sense from logistics point of view. BMW shud have study this and incorporated in their crisis mgmt plan. However, underlying fact is, during the slow economic situation, it is better to blame mother nature for halting production rather than continue to build up stock. There will be a shortage of Bimmers in the market, therefore price will increase as demand exceed supply…..

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  • King Samurai on Apr 20, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    Whole plant employee will go holiday

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  • Tiadaid on Apr 20, 2010 at 5:43 pm

    Imagine if that Icelandic volcano continues to spew ash for a long time! Last time it erupted, it lasted for two years!

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  • niamafufu on Apr 20, 2010 at 6:36 pm

    gogogo…erupt again~!

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  • bad news for the world..this will change the global weather..

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  • 2fast on Apr 20, 2010 at 7:37 pm

    Saw the IATA (airlines association) boss on TV scolding the European heads for depending too much on computer models and not on facts for stopping the flights. Many airlines have done tests flights and found that the volcanic clouds pose little or no problems to their engines and based on this many flights will resume this week.

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    • Tiadaid on Apr 20, 2010 at 8:56 pm

      Well it’s better to be safe than sorry. You can never underestimate the power of ash on an airplane. Many cases have been documented of volcano ash disrupting flight, the most famous of which was the fate of British Airways Flight 9 out of Subang back in 1982.

      But having said that, I think the European official took too long to ascertain the conditions. They could have reopened the airspace on Saturday from the looks of it.

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      • pelams on Apr 21, 2010 at 4:02 pm

        ya, i juz watched d documentary of Flight 9……all 4 engines were off due to the volcanic ashes..scary!

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  • bobdbilder on Apr 20, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    The effect is not just the car industry. As most high value industry are interconnected, a lot is affected (see also Globalization). There will be a huge backlog of deliveries (pardon the pun)O after the dust has settled. I’ve got a shipment from Germany that is pending due to this. But somehow the ones from UK was diverted to Shenzen and had arrived.

    Good tidings are in store for the shipping business .

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  • What’s happening to the world mama?
    We now have earthquake in Perth?
    signs of the Mayan 12-21-2012 prophecy??

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  • mitlanevo on Apr 20, 2010 at 11:35 pm

    GOOD!!! audi will get more and more sales, hehehehez

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  • bryan.jones on Apr 20, 2010 at 11:42 pm

    if last for 3-4 months.. i dunno how airlines are going to survive… hey, on the bright side.. at least less H1N1.

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  • rexis on Apr 21, 2010 at 11:08 am

    The fact that BMW actually relies on air freight to deliver their car parts show that how luxury their cars are.

    People usually use air freight to deliver highly priced honeydew, frozen king crab, live sea food etc…

    Let’s hope that there will never ever be any volcano ash related accident.

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