The global shortage of microchips has sent shockwaves through the world economy and led to a shortage of supplies for everything from headphones to cars.
The microchips are small and will soon be available in everything we buy. Shortage has led to shortage of delivery on everything from headphones to cars.
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The lack of microchips, which has clearly shown how dependent the world is on these small components, can be traced back to the beginning of the corona pandemic.
Demand for TVs, game consoles and electronic goods for home offices skyrocketed, and closed factories made it increasingly difficult to meet demand.
When the factories reopened, more and more microchips were ordered, which meant that the backlog only got bigger and bigger.
Not just the pandemic
But it is not just the pandemic that has led to delivery problems. In February, production at several factories in Texas was slowed down due to a storm, while a factory in Japan burned down in March.
The increasingly tense relationship between the United States and China is also part of the explanation. In August last year, the United States banned foreign companies that use American technology from selling to the Chinese technology giant Huawei. The ban was justified by espionage charges against the company.
Huawei responded by saving on microchips, and other companies followed suit. This further slowed down deliveries.
Several industries affected
The car industry is among those hardest hit, and many manufacturers have produced fewer cars as a result of the shortage.
As automakers slowed production at the onset of the pandemic, many microchip manufacturers chose to supply other industries. Now several car manufacturers, including Volkswagen and Volvo, are struggling to get enough microchips.
Although telephone manufacturers have been relatively spared so far because they have had a lot of microchips in stock, they are also starting to notice the lack of offers.
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced this week that the shortage in the future will affect the production of iPad and iPhone. Smaller producers are expected to be hit even harder, analysts estimate.
Game consoles like PlayStation and Xbox are also struggling with a shortage of supplies.
Will increase production
Several governments are now investing heavily in restoring the supply of microchips. In South Korea, the government is investing hundreds of billions of dollars in becoming a major producer of the key parts.
In the United States, the Senate has voted through a subsidy package of over $ 50 billion to producers.
The EU will also sharply increase production and aim to double its share of global production capacity by 2030.
But factories cannot open overnight, and the process behind microchip production is advanced.
– Building new capacity takes time. For a new factory, more than two and a half years, says Ondrej Burkacky, who works with microchips in McKinsey.
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