From the outbreak of the new crown epidemic to the present, the chip shortage has always plagued the electronics supply chain. It has been nearly two years since the epidemic caused turmoil in the industry, and chips, which are the heart of a variety of technology products, are still in serious shortage; Manufacturers of gaming consoles, networking equipment, medical devices, automobiles and other industries are still suffering from a lack of chips.
People initially thought that this problem would be solved by itself - either manufacturers will increase their efforts to meet demand, or demand will cool down naturally, but now the "core shortage" problem is still very serious.
Far from alleviating the chip problem, it is becoming more and more difficult to control. Lockdown and national home quarantine have become a thing of the past, but the chip shortage is still a big problem at hand.
Unable to build enough cars, some automakers saw their sales plummet and were forced to stop production. On November 17, Volkswagen suspended the production of electric vehicles in Germany due to supply chain problems. The Associated Press reported in September that due to the shortage of cores, many North American assembly plants of GM and Ford were temporarily suspended; Tesla CEO Elon Musk once reminded employees in an internal email that Tesla's delivery volume depends on the global chip shortage, which is still severe.
In October, Apple blamed chip shortages for its poor financial performance, and there were reports that iPhone 13 production would be cut by 10 million units due to chip shortages. Intel has also warned that the shortage of supply could continue into 2023.
The gaming hardware industry is also not having a good time, and Nintendo also announced this month that it had to lower its sales forecast due to factors such as chip shortages. Nintendo expects total sales of 24 million units in the current fiscal year, which is about 6% lower than the previous sales target of 25.5 million units.
In short, the semiconductor supply chain has stretched out in new, entrenched and hard-to-solve ways. The growth rate of demand exceeds the ability of chip companies, especially the use of widely used basic components, which will bring several major investment risks due to huge demand fluctuations.
Brian Matas, vice president of market research at IC Insights, a semiconductor industry analyst firm, said: "The global economy has been stagnant for so long due to the pandemic, and supply chains have not yet recovered. ”
