The global shortage of chips is spreading to other industries

Demand for chips continues to exceed supply. And it's not just about cars anymore. The global shortage of chips has already spread to the technology industry and will last until 2022. This was stated on Thursday in a webinar by the American business consulting company Bain & Company. Last year, during the first blockade to stop the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic, the automotive industry withdrew its orders as factories were closed for a time and production was discontinued. Meanwhile, other industries were raising orders, said Tom Wendt, a partner at Bain & Company, who said chip capacity was "redistributed to much higher-margin industries." Automakers recovered from the pandemic faster than expected, which chip makers did not respond in time. And in late March to early April, electronics manufacturers also began to have problems supplying chips, facing increased demand for products such as computers, smartphones and other teleworking and learning devices during the pandemic. Manufacturers of these products "consume" about 70% of semiconductors, compared to only 10% in the automotive industry. Concerns such as Apple, Sony, Nintendo and Dell, which were originally expected to be better prepared and have more advanced supply chain management, are already experiencing problems at the production level, Wendt said. The shortage of semiconductors has affected almost every industry, including the production of home appliances such as washing machines and more. During the pandemic, demand from companies that need semiconductors increased by 30 to 40%. Current production capacities have not been able to keep up with such an increase. A highly complex transnational supply chain and long delivery times for key activities also contributed to the problems. According to Peter Hanbury, a partner at Bain & Company, it is now necessary to focus on increasing production capacity in this industry, and not on redistributing resources. Leading chip makers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Intel have already announced investments to expand production, but it will take months to years to increase the capacity of existing factories or build entirely new plants, Wendt said. He estimates that the construction of new factories can take up to three years or sometimes longer.