Last month Hyundai agreed to a union demand to end night shifts in the company’s Korean factories but it added graveyard shifts to their American plants. In Europe and North America third shifts are returning as companies try to wring out the maximum number of vehicles from their existing capacity. In August, Jaguar Land Rover added a third shift at its Liverpool plant to keep up with demand for the Evoque. In North America, the big American car companies shed lots of excess plants as they went through their financial crisis and to keep up with the rebound in sales as the economy starts to grow they have added night shifts to many of their assembly operations. (Read More…)

Did we say that the auto industry has to deal with severe capacity problems? China has capacity problems alright. It looks like the biggest impediment to further sales growth in China is a shortage of cars.

China’s car makers are running three shifts and still cannot keep up with the demand, Bloomberg reports. Nissan’s factory in central China is making cars almost 24 hours a day, yet customers are faced with three month waits for their new car. Other companies, such as Ford and Honda, are running their Chinese factories at full capacity, with overtime and weekend shifts, and still can’t deliver enough cars. (Read More…)