The Russia-Ukraine War caused the Chip Crisis

Companies that supply many raw materials such as chips, palladium, neon gas, and nickel used in the production of electronic products from Russia are having a hard time with the effects of the war.

A chip is the name given to a group of electronic circuits placed on a metal sheet. Chip technology is known as technological devices of very small sizes. It has been revealed that the countries importing electronic parts, including Turkey, have difficulties in product supply due to the Russia-Ukraine war. It was stated that with the increase of this chip crisis, consumers may have difficulties in reaching electronic goods such as computers, phones, televisions, tablets and white goods in the coming days.

Pınar Kabil, President of the Turkish Informatics Industry Association (TÜBİDER), said, "It is said that Chinese and US manufacturers will delay their chip orders from Turkey by an average of 2 months. This situation will put our companies that export domestic production in a difficult situation. On the other hand, we are already seeing a global supply shortage in consumer electronics. Delaying the solution to the problem in chip supply due to the increase in raw material prices and price increases due to exchange rates may cause a short-term bottleneck in the product supply process. Consumers who want to meet their technology needs should act quickly in this period when making decisions."

Expressing that they are facing a global risk, Kabil added, "Computer sales in Turkey, which was 1.6 million in 2019, increased to 2.2 million units in 2020 and 2.4 million units in 2021. We expected more, but the known raw material and chip crisis prevented this. In 2020, the global market size for information and communication technologies was 3.8 trillion dollars. In 2021, it closed with a 4.1 trillion dollar balance.

In Turkey, it was 27 billion dollars in 2020, and we closed it with 28 billion dollars in 2021. The hardware sector, which has a raw material problem in 2022, will shrink by at least 50 percent if the conditions do not change. This risk exists both globally and for our country. The biggest risk is the possibility of a qualified mass educated in technology joining the army of the unemployed."

Ümit Önder, General Manager of Boğaziçi Bilgisayar, said, "We used to describe the development of technology in years in the previous periods; now it is measured in days. The fact that such a dynamic industry has problems with chip supply hinders my technological development. Another important issue is the price increases in the world due to raw materials.

When we add the exchange rate increases to this, we see price increases that are directly reflected back to the end user on top of the general supply shortage. High-tech products are at the focal point of all processes, especially in the business world. At least with tax regulations, we can prevent the end user from being affected by price increases, at least there. A regulation to be made in VAT rates may cause the sector to breathe a little."