While the times have been turbulent for the past year or so, it has hit virtually every industry. The semiconductor shortage is proof of that and now it is getting even more serious. Experts are predicting, this could continue till the end of 2022, and affect virtually all the manufacturing industries that rely on semiconductor chips. The automotive, gadget and other IT product makers which themselves rely on chips will get affected. Taiwan-based manufacturers Foxlink, Delta Electronics, AcBel Polytech, FSP, and Winmate have warned of components shortage which will impact everything in the supply chain.
Already the lead times for supplying IT components (microchips, ICs and power management chips) have been extended by 8-12 weeks. This is going to get worse as the lead times will extend to more than 24 weeks in the coming future.
In fact, the lead times for microcontrollers and memory chips are already 10 weeks behind schedule with components like power units and high-end integrated circuits having a six months wait time! This will surely hit the smartphone industry in a big way during the course of this year and leading up to 2022.
Samsung already warned about this situation in March 2021, and now the alarm bells has been hit by other IT companies as well. Unfortunately, it is worse than Samsung expected, as the lack of modern silicon chips is creating an unwanted stir in the market.
The South Korean giant has not shared its status in terms of the chip shortage, but this unprecedented situation has shaken up its 2021 roadmap. Samsung has already reshuffled its consumer electronics plans and so have the Taiwanese chip makers who now plan to extend their manufacturing capacities.
When will things get back on track is not known yet, but don’t expect them to stabilize anytime soon. Common sense suggests that this fiasco will be controllable only by sometime in 2023.