Germany urges Taiwan to help ease auto chip shortage

FILE PHOTO: A car body is moved in a production line at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany March 1, 2019. Picture taken March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo

BERLIN/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Germany has asked Taiwan to persuade Taiwanese manufacturers to help ease a shortage of semiconductor chips in the auto sector which is hampering its fledgling economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Automakers around the world are shutting assembly lines due to problems in the delivery of semiconductors, which in some cases have been exacerbated by the former Trump administration's actions against key Chinese chip factories.