Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further disrupted global supply chains with automakers facing challenges like shortages of components and rising material costs, leading to an overall decline in availability of cars in international markets. European carmakers Mercedes-Benz and Audi have announced plans to scale down production at their plants due to supply disruption of auto parts from Ukraine, especially wire harnesses. Ukraine has been a popular place to manufacture wiring systems owing to its cheap labor, well-educated workforce, and proximity to European car factories. Wiring harnesses tend to be one of the first components installed in a vehicle. As such, their shortage means that vehicle production essentially grinds to a halt. “Wire harnesses are the most critical near-term bottleneck, in our view, already causing significant production interruption amongst all German OEMs,” UBS analyst Patrick Hummel said in an investor note. “We think significant downtimes in the next few weeks are …