Yes. Thank you, Mr. Lewis
You're absolutely right. The chip shortage has been one of the biggest headwinds facing the industry since the onset of COVID and the associated supply chain challenges and chip production shutdowns. Last year we started to see, towards the end of the year, in the third and fourth quarters, an increase and improvement with respect to chip inventories and, as a result, production.
However, the delta wave of COVID, followed now by the omicron wave, has led to another series of chip shortages that are impacting the industry globally, so production in Canada last year was down by almost a million units. We are hopeful that we're starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel with respect to a balance in terms of global chip production and demand.
The U.S. is taking steps. There is currently $53 billion U.S. about to be approved to enhance U.S. chip production capacity, which will be extremely helpful for the Canadian industry as well as the U.S. industry, given the integrated nature of our auto sector.
It has been a big challenge, but I'm hopeful that we're starting to see an end to that and you'll see production increase and then return to pre-COVID levels.