Posted on 06/07/2021 1:50:55 PM PDT by blam
It still looks like we are nowhere near the end of the ongoing global semi chip shortage. Even worse, more manufacturers are confirming that the shortage could last “for at least another year”, catalyzed by sharp post-pandemic demand for automobiles and electronics.
Flex, the world’s third-biggest electronics contract manufacturer, offered up the “gloomiest” forecast for the crisis yet to FT this week. The company has more than 100 sites in 30 countries and works with major names like Dyson and HP.
Lynn Torrel, Flex’s chief procurement and supply chain officer, told FT: “With such strong demand, the expectation is mid to late-2022 depending on the commodity. Some are expecting [shortages to continue] into 2023.”
Revathi Advaithi, chief executive of Flex added that the shortage has prompted the company’s multinational customers to “take a far more serious look at restructuring their supply chains than the trade war between the US and China ever did”.
Adavaithi commented: “Most companies won’t make a decision to regionalize just on tariffs. They know it could be a short-term thing but things like the pandemic and escalation of shipping costs that impact the total cost of ownership drives regionalization.”
Flex’s pessimistic forecast follows that of Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger last week, who we pointed out said that the shortage could last “a couple years”.
Gelsinger said that the pandemic-inspired “work from home” trend caused a “cycle of explosive growth in semiconductors”, according to Reuters.
“But while the industry has taken steps to address near term constraints it could still take a couple of years for the ecosystem to address shortages of foundry capacity, substrates and components,” Gelsinger commented.
Gelsinger also reiterated Intel’s plans to expand: “We plan to expand to other locations in the U.S. and Europe, ensuring a sustainable and secure semiconductor supply chain for the world.”
Intel is trying to keep pace with Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor – both of which also have plans to expand, including into the U.S. – to increase semi production.
We noted in mid-May that TSMC had plans of “doubling down” and vastly increasing its investment for production in Arizona. The chipmaking giant said at the time it was “weighing plans to pump tens of billions of dollars more into cutting-edge chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona than it had previously disclosed”.
The company had already said it was going to invest $10 billion to $12 billion in Arizona. It now appears to be mulling a more advanced 3 nanometer plant that could cost between $23 billion and $25 billion. The changes would come over the next 10 to 15 years, as the company builds out its Phoenix campus.
In May we noted how automakers were being forced to leave some high tech features out of new vehicles as a result of the semi shortage. Days before that, we pointed out “thousands” of Ford trucks sitting along the highway in Kentucky, awaiting semi chips for completion of assembly.
Intel’s CEO, speaking on 60 Minutes last month, had already suggested it could be a while before things are back to normal.
He said then: “We have a couple of years until we catch up to this surging demand across every aspect of the business.”
(snip)
Keep your present vehicle well maintained.
Does this mean my 5g microwave and refrigerator will have to wait? /s
Maybe.
I have a small stock of various ARM SOCs.
Got a feeler from the supplier asking if I would perhaps
part with them, or a few.
Things must really be tough if my meager collection is coveted.
Yeah we need to turn the microwave on with our phones.
Just another planned disruption to bring down this country.
Stupido.
The term ‘Chip’ covers so much product. No one company makes a product called ‘The Chip’
Is it a silicon shortage? Is it some other raw material that is in short supply?
How dumb is our world?
This is what we get for that idiotic “Just In Time” methodology.
I’d prefer my vehicles to be ‘chipless’
Keep it simple stupid. kiss
Translation: We’re keeping the phony shortage going as long as we can to keep prices high.
Let all the chips be made outside our nation...
What could go wrong?
At least the House got two Trump impeachment votes in.
At least Mitch and Paul helped stonewall Trump’s agenda.
And so it goes...
What? A semi-sweet chip shortage?
I guess it’ll be oatmeal raisin cookies for the foreseeable future!
Oh, never mind...
I'm a retired chip maker, started in 1967 when there were no computers. Over the years my 'language' of what I do/did changed with the IQ of the population.
Today, I just say "I made computer chips", it's what people understand.
car companies cut their own throat
with useless electronic bs
Yeah, this trend of making automobiles that are easy to make but terrible to maintain only helps the manufacturers. There are some things that are better electronic versus mechanical such as ignition, fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, and remote start but the "sensors-for-everything" is ridiculous.
There's a market for someone who could reprogram old chips or make chip bypasses to fool the onboard computers.
JIT, also known as OSWO...
I just did a brake job (including rotors) and brake fluid change. Need to do a transmission service, have the parts and fluid, have been putting it off. Need to go ahead and git ‘er done in the next couple weeks.
Also need to do oil and air filter on wifey’s ride.
This is what we get for handing U.S. business over to the likes of Harvard MBAs.
This impacts not only auto manufacturers, but light and heavy manufacturing, which also rely heavily on a variety of chips to drive related equipment. Think harvesting machines or steel fabricators...
In the top ten of idiot moves by Zero, gifting chip technology and incentivizing moves of chip manufacturers to China is one of the worst.
Yeah soon most folks won’t know how to wipe their own butt without first checking for a YouTube instruction video on the procedure.
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