March 30 Reuters British car production rose 13.1 in February in its first monthly increase in three, helped by an easing of supplychain snags and robust output in both domestic and overseas markets.

Britain39;s car output rose by 8,050 units to 69,707 units cars last month, with exports rising 11.5 and domestic output jumping 20.3, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders SMMT said in a statement on Thursday.

SMMT said about 81.2 of the total produced cars were exported, mainly to the European Union, and in smaller volumes to countries including Japan, Australia and Turkey, offsetting declines to the U.S. and China.

The global auto industry has been grappling with a pandemicinduced shortage of key components for the last two years, particularly semiconductor chips. Supply chain disruptions in China due to strict monthslong lockdowns also weighed on the sector.

Production of hybrid, plugin hybrid and battery electric vehicles continued to rise, with combined volumes surging by 72.2 to 27,392 units in February, the data showed.

Earlier this month, SMMT had said Britain needed to urgently respond to largescale U.S. and EU initiatives to support industry, or it would risk falling behind in the race to build electric vehicles EVs.

The U.S. last year announced 369 billion in subsidies to support clean technologies and EVs under the Inflation Reduction Act IRA. That was followed up by the Green Deal Industrial Plan proposed by the EU last month on concerns that the…