Car factories are taking a beating this winter and spring. If it’s not a global shortage of microchips caused by a worldwide disease epidemic shutting them down, it’s a shortage of seat foam caused by a massive winter storm.
Polyurethane foam, the material that makes your car’s seats comfortable, comes from byproducts of the oil refining process. Several of America’s largest oil refineries are still offline from the brutal winter storm. The winter blast claimed 58 lives and caused most of Texas to lose power last month. Since the refineries aren’t producing gasoline and other petroleum products, suppliers can’t get the chemicals they need to build new seats.
An unnamed industry executive told Crain’s Detroit Business that the seat foam shortage “is bigger and closer than the semiconductor issue.”
According to the report, there’s no end in sight. In some cases, refineries need to replace parts that cracked in the cold. These components aren’t easy to come by. As they do make repairs, they restart slowly and cautiously, looking for hidden damage.
The factory shutdowns and limited supply of seats have yet to push car prices up. Expressed in terms of the time it takes to pay off a typical loan, the average car has been growing more affordable in recent months. But extended pauses in production could cause the prices of some popular models to rise.
