Tata Motors, owner of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), has announced a surprising quarterly loss of more than $1 billion.
It came as the Indian company canceled $2.1 billion related to its revamp of the UK-based luxury car business.
It also warned that a global semiconductor shortage is now impacting production plans for the current quarter. Last month JLR temporarily halted production at its two main factories in Britain due to a lack of chips.
For the first three months of the year, Tata Motors reported a net loss of $1.04 billion, compared to analysts’ expectations of a $365.4 million profit.
That was even as JLR’s sales in China jumped by 127 percent from a year ago and Tata Motors’ overall retail sales, which account for most of its revenue, rose 12.4 percent.
Like other major carmakers around the world, Tata Motors has been forced to suspend some operations because of the chip shortage.
The coronavirus crisis has driven a shift to working, learning and socializing from home, which has boosted demand for laptops and other devices that use semiconductors.