Stellantis to extend production halt at Italy's Melfi due to chip shortage, union says

MILAN (Reuters) - Stellantis will extend by one week to Sept. 13 a planned production stoppage at its Melfi plant in southern Italy due to a global microchip shortage, FIM-CISL union said on Tuesday.

The output freeze at Melfi, one of the carmaker's largest plants in Italy, comes after Stellantis on Monday said it was extending production halts at several plants in Europe due to a shortage of microchips.

"The company has confirmed to unions that the delay was due to a semiconductor shortage on international markets," FIM-CISL said in a statement.

Production at Melfi has been stopped since mid-August, including a two-week summer holiday period.

Stellantis reiterated the semiconductor shortage was affecting the whole automotive industry.

"From the beginning of the COVID crisis, we drive our activity daily, plant by plant, by adapting our industrial activity to the automotive market trends, and by taking into account the different situations we are facing," the carmaker said in a statement.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Giselda Vagnoni and Steve Orlofsky)