Porsche chief says chip shortage 'very serious'

Porsche’s chief executive warned on Monday that the German luxury automaker’s daily operations could be affected over the coming months by a “very serious” global semiconductor shortage.

“The semiconductor topic is a very serious one because the whole industry is affected because of the big demand of consumer electronics and the faster return of the automotive sector,” Oliver Blume, chief executive of Porsche, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday.

“We could be affected every day, so we watch very deeply (over) the next days and months what we can do. We have to relax short term and look for measures long term.”

When asked whether Porsche could be forced to reconsider this supply chain model, Blume replied: “Yes. That is very important for the future to think about the supply chain.”

“We have to think about what storage do we need really for all these stocks. We have to be more flexible and we have to plan more deeply the immediate capacities.”

Shares of Porsche, listed on Germany’s Xetra Dax index, are up 15 percent year-to-date. The stock price is little changed over the last 12 months.