global chip shortage Archives - Gizmochina

Global Chip Shortage is Over! The Impact of Inflation on the Chip Industry

Oğuz Çakır — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:59:29 +0000

The global chip shortage has come to an end, as confirmed by the latest reports. The statement might seem overly optimistic, but the declining operation rates at South Korean chip foundries such as Samsung, DB Hitek, Key Foundry, Magnachip, and SK Hynix System IC supports the declaration. The chip industry is reportedly moving towards a more stable supply chain. Here are the details…

South Korean chip foundries to suffer low operation rate up to Q2

The global chip shortage, which began during the pandemic, has affected the entire world. The decrease in production capacity and simultaneous increase in demand resulted in a crisis that lasted for an extended period. Despite manufacturers operating at near full capacity to meet demand, both prices and product availability remained limited.

But that era has now come to an end. Recent reports indicate that many manufacturers in South Korea operate at 60-70%. Only Samsung is an exception, operating at 80% capacity. Unfortunately, the impact of global inflation and declining demand for IT products has resulted in a decrease in both chip prices and demand. Consumer electronics companies are also grappling with high inventory levels.

Unfortunately, this situation seems to affect the consumers negatively. People who paid high wages only a few months ago due to product and stock shortages will now buy products at low prices due to rising costs and inflation.

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Intel, AMD and Nvidia CPU and GPU cost to rise as TSMC hikes prices: Report

Sudhanshu — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 12:52:59 +0000

The ongoing semiconductor shortage wreaked havoc on the pricing of PC components like CPUs and GPUs in 2021, and it appears that 2022 might be even worse.

According to a report by Digitimes, the Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC has already raised its quotes by 10-20% for both mature and advanced nodes starting this year. This means that TSMC’s major customers like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia will also increase their product prices in the near future.

For AMD, the price hike will likely come across its entire range of processors, including the 7nm based Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000) and Zen 3 (Ryzen 5000) processors, as well as their upcoming 5nm based Ryzen 7000 processors. The RDNA 2 based AMD GPUs are also expected to be more expensive in the future as they also depend on TSMC’s 7nm process.

Talking of GPUs, Nvidia has recently raised the MSRP for multiple cards in the RTX 3000 series and going by the report, the company’s upcoming 4000 series is expected to be even costlier since it has switched nodes from Samsung to TSMC’s 5nm for their next-gen GPUs. DigiTimes also reports that Nvidia has already made prepayments to TSMC for long-term orders of 5nm silicon for the RTX 4000 series GPUs starting in 2022 as well.

Moving on to Intel, the California-based giant is expected to be least affected by this new development as it makes most of its chips in-house. However, the report states that Intel will also be hiking its pricing for multiple reasons, including the increased cost of wafer production outsourced to TSMC. The firm is also building new fabs to enable the in-house production of chips based on advanced nodes, which will give Intel more incentive to drive costs higher to recuperate the additional investments.

All in all, the report indicated that 2022 could potentially be a terrible year for the PC industry as well as the customers who have been facing excruciatingly high prices for more than a year now. So if you are planning to build/buy a PC or upgrade components on your existing system, we suggest you do so quickly before the price hikes are implemented.

Samsung estimates global chip shortage continuing until H2 2022

Jeet — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 06:21:40 +0000

Everyone is aware of the global chip shortage which has impacted almost every industry and the smartphone industry has also been hit. Samsung, which is the smartphone leader globally and also makes its own chips, has also been impacted.

Now, as per the report from The Elec, Samsung believes that the chip shortage will continue up until the second half of 2022. The report is citing TM Roh, Chief of Samsung Mobile, who discussed this issue with around 30 partners and vendors last month.

Samsung noted that the chipsets and RF chips will be short in supply until H2 2022 and the company is taking steps to mitigate the shortages. The South Korean giant is now pushing for annual contracts with chip foundries to secure the chip production capacity.

The company is now looking to stock up to four weeks’ worth of chip supplies instead of the firms currently stocking two weeks of supply. It’s good to see Samsung taking the necessary steps to ensure smooth operations amid chip shortages.

Samsung has suffered a lot in the current year because of these shortages. The brand’s Galaxy S21 FE has been delayed and is now set to launch in January 2022, pushing the launch of the Galaxy S22 lineup to February.

Sony suspends sale of another one of its cameras due to chip shortage

Sean — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 11:56:37 +0000

The ongoing chip shortage has yet to subside and is still affecting various industries across the globe. This issue has already affected smartphones, automobiles, and even the camera market as well, with cameras from Sony becoming even more difficult to buy.

According to a Digital Photography Review report, the shortage of semiconductors have caused the Japanese tech giant to stop sales for another one of its cameras. The camera in question is the ZV-E10, which is a mirrorless vlogging camera that was first launched back in August 2021. On its official website, Sony announced that it is suspending the sale of its ZV-E10 on its store or through any of its distributors as of right now.

The company stated that the suspension arrives due to chip shortage, which caused a delay in sourcing of components. Notably, the vlogging camera is just one among other cameras that the brand had to discontinue this year alone. Just last month, Sony had to stop the sale of the A7 II, A6400, and the A1600 series cameras along with the ECM-B1M shotgun mic and PXW-Z190 camcorder as well. Similarly back in April, the company’s Handycam HDR-CX680 camcorder sales were also suspended.

At the moment, the A9 series of cameras also seem to be discontinued or could very well be available in very limited stock. Some distributors have listed these products as “No longer available.” The issues with the part shortage doesn’t end there as the camera models that are available are also facing delays in shipments and longer than usual wait times for delivery.

Qualcomm CEO expects global chip shortage to ease by next year

Sudhanshu — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 16:09:05 +0000

Amid the ongoing semiconductor shortage plaguing multiple industries worldwide, Cristiano Amon, the CEO of Qualcomm, has shared some information in a statement that comes as a ray of hope.

According to a report by TheElec, Cristiano Amon (Qualcomm’s CEO) said that the global chip shortage is easing, and the situation is expected to improve next year.

“Supply has improved this year over 2020 and the situation is expected to improve even more in 2022, especially compared to 2020,” said Amon in his statement to reports from South Korea.

This statement given on December 2nd comes in contrast with the statements issued earlier by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who expects the global chip shortage to continue until 2023. At the same time, Arm CEO Simon Segars has warned that the situation is expected to get even worse than it is right now.

Due to chip shortages all across the board, smartphone brands have been unable to procure enough chips to put in their devices and meet market demand. But some chip manufacturers like MediaTek have seen a growth in their market share thanks to the demand and supply gap created by the shortage.

Earlier this week, Qualcomm unveiled its latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC which is being made exclusively by Samsung Foundries using their 4-nanometer node. This partnership will be crucial for Qualcomm as the foundry’s yield rates will determine whether Qualcomm will meet the market demands in the upcoming year or keep losing ground to other chipmakers.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML sees around $2.3 bln of sales in China in 2021, 2022

Sudhanshu — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 15:03:37 +0000

Earlier today, ASML, a Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, said that the company sees demand for its products remaining strong in China, with around 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in sales in 2021.

According to a report published by the Economic Times, the Chief Financial Officer of ASML, Roger Dassen, said that ASML, which is currently operating at maximum capacity amid the ongoing global chip shortage, thinks that the sales levels will remain the same in China for the upcoming year of 2022.

He stated that “For next year I wouldn’t expect a dramatic increase in that numbers, but we would expect that number to be sustained, so also next year pretty strong sales.”

For those unaware, ASML Holding engages in the development, production, marketing, sale, and servicing of advanced semiconductor equipment, consisting of lithography-related systems, which is the technology used to create the circuitry of computer chips.

Due to growing trade tensions between the U.S. and China and the concerns of the U.S. military, the allied Dutch government has not granted ASML permission to conduct sales of its most advanced lithography equipment with China. However, Chinese companies are major buyers of ASML’s earlier generation products due to the relatively recent drive to make homegrown chips for self-sustenance and compete internationally.

Peter Wennink, the CEO of ASML Holding, has previously stated that trying to control chip and technology exports to the region (China) will be detrimental to the U.S.

Roger Dassen, however, stated that “if for whatever reason, something were to happen on the China front, for instance more stringent regulations…in all likelihood that demand would be hoovered up someplace else.”

The CFO also added that ASML was weighing how much extra capacity the company would need to meet the increasing demand for its products as a result of plans by the United States, European Union, and other governments to increase regional semiconductor manufacturing capacity due to strategic considerations.

Chip shortage forces GM to remove heated seats & steering wheel functions from some of its cars

Jed John Ikoba — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:57:55 +0000

The global chip shortage remains a very critical issue in a wide array of manufacturing fields as companies grapple with meeting their production targets amidst the continuing chip shortage. General Motors have had some of its key components like heated seats and heated steering wheels dropped as a temporary measure.

General Motors had confirmed a few days back that it will not be offering heated and ventilated seats or heated steering wheels on some Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC vehicles due to lack of supplies of the relevant chips to automate these components. The temporary measures will affect vehicles on the 2022 lineup, as the company seeks ways to overcome the semiconductor shortage and prevent production from stalling.

On the surface, it seems these changes are just minor adjustments that should not significantly affect the comfort of passengers in these vehicles. However, heated seats are among the very popular features and options that attract the attention of new buyers. General Motors insist that the changes are temporary pending when the company’s chip supplies improve substantially. Although GM was silent on how long the new approach will last, industry watchers had projected that the global chip shortage could extend deep into 2022, across all segments of the tech ecosystem.

The changes are not across all trims; hence some vehicles will still adorn these features. The changes will also reflect in the price of the models, as they will be priced lower than the models sporting these features. Shoppers will see the changes on the vehicle’s label and a credit on the price for the missing feature. General Motors says it has had significant improvements in its chip supplies and its plants across the US are working, some overtime to clear the production backlog. A few other features which were excluded previously like the side blind zone alert and Super Cruise have now been restored.

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Apple supplier Foxconn believes chip shortage may stretch into H2 2022

Sean — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 12:31:24 +0000

Foxconn, a major supplier of iPhones for Apple, has recently shared its views on the ongoing chip shortage. The company believes that the semiconductor shortages might be stretched well into the second half of next year.

According to a WallStreetJournal report (Via MacRumors), the Cupertino based giant has been facing the impacts of the chip shortage for several quarters now. But in the latest quarter, the supply constraints on components have started affecting the brand’s business. For those unaware, the world is currently facing an going semiconductor shortage that has impacted various industries, including the likes of automobiles, home appliances, smartphones, and many more.

This, in turn, has even lead to lead times (time between an order being placed and actual delivery) rising for all of Apple’s products. This includes iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and even Macs. According to the company, the shortages have cost it 6 billion US Dollars, which would escalate even further with the arriving holiday season. While Foxconn’s production for iPhone have recently been improving, the delivery times are still much higher than normal.

With the holiday season being just around the corner, the iPhone maker is encouraging prospective buyers to ensure they receive it in time for the holidays. The issue with supply has even caused the company to provide “order by” dates for some of its most popular products as well.

Tesla delivers New vehicles with missing USB-C ports

Sudhanshu — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 14:02:53 +0000

The global chip shortage is wreaking havoc on many microchip-dependent industries, like the automotive industry, including Tesla, which for the most part has managed to avoid the brunt of it. This has been possible thanks to quick decision-making like pivoting to microcontrollers and developing newer firmware to work with new chips from different suppliers.

However, Tesla might be facing a new PR nightmare in the form of missing USB ports in their latest Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

In the last few days, reports have surfaced that some new Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles have been delivered with missing USB-C ports. Most affected cars seem to be missing the USB-C ports along the back wall of the center console, with one claiming that the rear-seat USB ports are missing. These owners have also complained about the wireless charging not working.

Tesla Model 3 missing USB-C ports

According to Electrek, an auto-tech website, Tesla blames the missing parts on the global chip shortage.

As a new Tesla owner, it is understandable that due to the ongoing semiconductor shortages, some non-essential parts of your vehicle might be missing. The concern, however, comes with the lack of communication or transparency from Tesla.

These units are often delivered without informing the customer about the missing parts. Many customers have pointed out that this issue can be easily solved if Tesla marked these vehicles beforehand and made a priority list to install the missing parts on the latest date of availability.

If you are a new Tesla owner, we advise you to check if all the USB ports are available in your vehicle.

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Samsung plans to ship 334 Million Smartphones in 2022 amidst chip shortage woes

Sudhanshu — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 13:43:19 +0000

A report has revealed Samsung’s plans for 2022 in the smartphone sector. The South Korean tech giant has set its objective to ship 334 million smartphone units worldwide.

According to Samsung‘s plan, the company is gearing up to manufacture an impressive 285 million smartphone units in-house while outsourcing the production of 49 million units to its joint development manufacturers.

The report via Thelec stated that Samsung aims to produce 54 million units of its flagship Galaxy S series and 13 million units of the Galaxy Z Folding lineup.

samsung galaxy s21 vs s21 ultra

It is worth noting that Samsung is almost doubling up the productions of its folding smartphones (13 million) compared to 2021 (7 million), indicative of their vision going forward. The report also detailed that 4 million of these units will be the Galaxy Z Fold and 9 million Galaxy Z flip units.

The report also stated that Samsung aims to ship 176 million units of ENTRY phones, the name for its low-end Smartphones. While in the mid-tier segment, Samsung’s objective is to ship 91 million units, out of which 8 million will be ‘HIGH phones, i.e. the highest tier offerings out of its mid-tier lineup.

The year 2022 will be the first time since 2017 that Samsung aims to ship above 300 million units of Smartphones. However, the smartphone giant is likely to face some bumps in this roadmap, with its Vietnam manufacturing facility temporarily ceasing production due to the ongoing pandemic and with the world facing the global chip shortage.

China’s Geely launches its own Electric truck, rivals Tesla Semi

Sudhanshu — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:06:32 +0000

Homtruck, a new electric semi-truck has been launched by China’s Geely. Faizron Auto, Geely’s commercial vehicle group, is planning to roll out the vehicle in 2024 and the company will target international markets as well.

This launch comes at a time when Tesla has delayed the production of a similar electric vehicle, the Tesla Semi till 2023, which was supposed to release in 2017. Mercedes and Warren Buffett-backed BYD have also announced their own electric trucks, according to a report by CNBC.

The Homtruck will have two power options, Methanol Hybrid and Pure Electric. Methanol-powered batteries are a technology that Geely has been investing in for a few years and its also providing this power option in some of its models. Farizon also stated that the Homtruck’s batteries can also be swapped out, which cuts down on the need to wait for charging. The company said that the interiors consist of a shower and toilet, single bed, refrigerator, kitchen area, and a small washing machine.

The Homtruck is built with autonomous driving in mind, with autonomous driver-less features. Vehicles also have the ability to communicate with each other for maintaining safe speed and distance. In the exclusive covered by CNBC Mike Fan, CEO, Geely commercial vehicle group, said that “Geely plans to introduce autonomous driving in three phases. By 2023, the company hopes to have some partial driverless features with more advanced systems by 2026. Geely plans to achieve full autonomy in 2030.” Rumors are also rife that Geely will collaborate with Huawei to integrate the HarmonyOS into its vehicles.

Notably, the production of Homtruck could face a challenge due to the ongoing global chip shortage which however the company feels is a seasonal phenomenon.

Nintendo looking to ‘substitute components and tweak designs’ to tackle chip shortage

Sudhanshu — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 14:37:05 +0000

Nintendo Co. Ltd on Friday revealed that the global chip shortage, which had already forced the company to downscale its expected sales for the much-loved Switch device, is also hindering hardware development.

“The semiconductor situation is having some effect on hardware development. We are looking at substituting components and tweaking designs to try and reduce the impact,” said Nintendo executive Mr. Ko Shiota.

If you have been out of the loop, the world is suffering from a shortage of semiconductors at the moment. This issue has affected various tech-reliant industries across the globe including the automobile, consumer electronics (Smartphones, Laptops, gaming consoles, Televisions), home appliances, and more.

In a statement given to CNBC last month, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has speculated that the global chip shortage will likely linger for a lot longer. He said that he expects the shortage to extend at least until 2023.

This announcement comes a day after the company president Mr. Shuntaro Furukawa stated that the chip shortage shows no sign of easing up, and it has forced the company to cut down on its annual sales forecast of the Nintendo Switch by 6%. Mr. Furukawa also revealed that the company is struggling to meet the increased demand in the year-end holiday shopping season as chip shortages interrupt production.

The gaming giant depends heavily on its console business, all the while deep-pocketed rivals such as Microsoft are expanding subscription and cloud gaming services.

Nintendo on Friday further stated that “Nintendo plans to continue to expand its business around the core concept of creating unique integrated hardware-software products.”

Global chip shortage could continue until 2023 according to Intel CEO

Zohaib Ahmed — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 11:26:51 +0000

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger warned that the global chip shortage will likely linger for a lot longer. He said that he expects the shortage to extend at least until 2023.

The statement was made to CNBC late on Thursday ahead of Intel’s third-quarter 2021 financial results. The CEO also revealed that the industry-wide component shortage affected its PC chip business during the third quarter which led to an 8% drop in Intel’s stocks.

Gelsinger believes that the shortage is presently at its worst but will get better incrementally with each quarter next year. Supply-demand balance cannot be expected until at least 2023 though.

Pat Gelsinger

But despite thinning supply, Intel delivered its third-quarter results with a 5% YoY increase in revenue owing to strong demand in its DCG and IoTG businesses. The company also generated $9.9 billion in cash from operations and paid dividends of $1.4 billion.

“Q3 revenue was $18.1 billion slightly below our guide due to shipping and supply constraints that impacted our businesses,” George S. Davis, Chief Financial Officer, said in a statement. He also announced plans to retire from Intel in May 2022.

Intel says that demand has remained strong in its PC business, particularly in commercial, desktop, and higher-end consumer notebooks.

The digitization of everything, pushed by the four superpowers of AI, pervasive connectivity, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, and ubiquitous computing, is driving the continued need for more chips according to Gelsinger.

He further added that the market is expected to double to $1 trillion by the end of this decade. Until then, the market for leading-edge nodes will increase to over 50 per cent of the total and the market for leading-edge foundry services will grow at twice the rate of the semi-industry overall.

“Customers continue to choose Intel for their datacenter needs and our third-gen scalable Xeon processor Ice Lake has shipped over 1 million units since launching in April, and we expect to ship over 1 million units again in Q4 alone,” Gelsinger said.

Samsung Mobile Head visited US twice to secure more chips: Report

Sean — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 08:41:46 +0000

The Samsung Mobile division’s President and Head TH Roh has apparently made two visits to the US within this year. The executive made the trips to secure more chipsets/mobile application processors that is required for smartphone production.

According to TheElec, Roh met with major component makers in the US to secure a more chips and asked major partners to supply the South Korean tech giant. However, the official was reportedly denied, as per sources close to the matter. The first trip was made back in March while the last one was in July. The source further added that the President of Samsung Mobile division visited a global application processor maker in July and asked for more chips, but was refused outright.

The component maker had told the President that they wished to increase overall supply as well, but couldn’t increase the supply to Samsung along as of right now. Notably, Roh was also accompanied by the Vice President who remained in the US and returned to South Korea after staying for about three months. A company spokesperson stated that their trip was not without any results and they did result in the brand being able to secure some volume.

Although, the failure to secure more chips is indicative of the ongoing global shortage of semiconductors that has affected various industries across the globe. This includes the consumer electronics and even the automobile industry. At the moment, smartphone production has been negatively affected due to supply constraints in the third quarter of this year, which is also expected to continue in the fourth quarter as well.

Elon Musk: New semiconductor plants to end global auto chip shortage in 2022

Sean — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:55:36 +0000

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has recently stated that the global shortage of chips that has affected the automobile industry should end by next year, thanks to the construction of new semiconductor plants.

For those unaware, there is an ongoing crisis regarding semiconductors shortages that have affected various industries across the globe. One of the worst affected was car production, which had even halted entirely for certain brands due to supply constraints. Now, Musk stated that “There’s a lot of chip fabrication plants that are being built. I think we will have good capacity for providing chips by next year.” during a joint session with Stellantis and Ferrari Chairman John Elkann at the Italian Tech Week (Via Reuters).

The two of them also agreed on potential support coming from nuclear power to cover the increasing global energy needs. Elon Musk further added that “I am surprised by a recent move away of some countries from nuclear energy, which is safe.” Since the onset of the chip shortage, various major chipmakers began expanding their production capacity to ensure a steady supply of semiconductors. So, we can expect supply to eventually catch up with the explosive demand.

Global Chip Shortage issue intensifies, wait times hit record 21 weeks

Sean — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 09:59:06 +0000

The wait times for companies looking for chipsets have risen even further. In August, the industry has hit a record 21 weeks lead time, which is indicative of the global chip shortage issue worsening over time.

For those unaware, the world is facing a shortage of semiconductors at the moment. This has affected various industries across the globe, including the automobile, consumer electronics, and others. Lack of chips has led to carmakers halting production, while the electronics industry’s growth has also been stunted. According to research from Susquehanna Financial Group (Via Bloomberg), the lead times for chips has risen again and reached 21 weeks last month.

This marked a lead time rise of 6 days over July 2021. In layman’s terms, the gap between companies placing an order for semiconductors and receiving delivery has been on the rise. Back in July, we had reported on wait times hitting a record 18 weeks. As of right now, the gap is the longest wait times ever since the firm began tracking semiconductors since 2017.

Furthermore, the report found that the lead times for analog and Broadcom chips have also gotten worse, but the power management chips and certain optoelectronic components have seen a positive trend recently. Notably, the shortage of semiconductors have also impacted recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic. This holds especially true for the automobile industry, with reports suggestions that the entire automotive industry will lose around 110 billion US Dollars in sales.

Not only JioPhone Next but many other smartphones face issue due to chip shortage: Counterpoint

Jeet — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 05:35:52 +0000

Recently, Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio announced that its upcoming smartphone, named JioPhone Next, will be officially launched by the Diwali festival in the country, which means that it will be available by 4th November.

The entry-level smartphone made in collaboration with Google was earlier set to get launched in the Indian market last week but the phone’s release has been delayed and the company has claimed global chip shortage as the reason.

JioPhone Next

Now, a report from Counterpoint Research claims that the JioPhone Next isn’t the only device being affected by the severe shortage of components and shipping delays. It says that many top smartphone makers are delaying or limited the launch of their products to certain markets due to production issues.

The delays in smartphone launches are linked to shortages in components like power management integrated circuits. The rising cost for key components such as memory, processors, and logistics is also a key factor.

At the same time, companies are also increasing the pricing of smartphones. The prime example of this would be Xiaomi-backed Redmi which increased the price of the Redmi Note 10 series four times in the Indian market.

According to Counterpoint Research, the year is expected to end with about 190 launches, which is less than over 207 launches last year. So far, companies have conducted around 103 smartphone launches this year.

It remains to be seen how many devices get launched in the fourth quarter of this year which is the prime sale period for both online and offline sales because of the festive season and it accounts for around one-third of annual sales.

Qualcomm CEO confirms plans to work with European foundries to boost chip production

Ashutosh — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 04:35:26 +0000

Amidst the chip shortage that has hit the entire world, the EU is pushing for billions of dollars of investment to boost its share of global chip production and get relieved of its dependence on Asia. The world’s number 1 supplier of semiconductors in the smartphone industry – Qualcomm – is also keen on powering dashboards and infotainment systems of cars. Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon has confirmed that Qualcomm welcomes the idea of working with foundries in Europe if they are able to attract the right partners in the automobile industry in Europe.

Qualcomm’s production is aimed at leading-edge technology, and the majority of foundries for that are located in Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States but Amon has confirmed that Qualcomm fully supports the idea of the EU to attract foundries.

The company has done some extraordinary work in the last 1 year to expedite the manufacturing and build new facilities to counter the global chip shortage. With this pace, the CEO believes to leave the majority of the problems to be behind them as we enter 2022.

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Apple warns about chip shortage impacting iPhone production

Jeet — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 02:17:34 +0000

Global chip shortage has become a serious issue for everything related to technology. While the shortage was impacting automakers initially, it is now also making a dent in the business of consumer electronics makers.

As the global chip shortage is hitting the smartphone industry, Apple has said that it could affect iPhone production and the company has also forecasted slowing revenue growth. This will also impact the tech giant’s services business.

Apple executives said that the revenue for the current fiscal fourth quarter will grow by double-digits but be below the 36.4% growth rate in the just-ended third quarter. They added that while the impact of the chip shortage was less severe than feared in the third quarter, it will get worse in the fourth, extending to iPhone production.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said that chips affected by the shortages are made using older technology but those are still vital as supporting parts for making iPhones. Analysts believed that Apple could be stockpiling chips for its next-generation iPhone models.

There are several reasons behind the global shortage of chips, including factory closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic and increased demand for consumer electronics products during the lock-down and Work from Home setups.

The situation is not as bad for Samsung and Apple as with smaller phone manufacturers. HMD Global, which makes Nokia-branded devices, has warned that the semiconductor shortage could prove challenging for smaller device makers.

Reports indicate that many players in the mobile phone industry are struggling to procure a variety of semiconductors, including the struggle for sourcing power-management chips, display drivers, application processors, in addition to 4G and 5G chipsets.

Cargo thieves cart away Chips worth HK$5m ($644K) while in transit in Hong Kong

Jed John Ikoba — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 15:43:27 +0000

The global chip shortage isn’t going away soon, according to a recent report. As manufacturers jostle for the limited supply of chips, the shortage is about taking a new dimension. News emanating from Hong Kong indicates that cargo thieves are beginning to target the chip supply chain.

According to a Hong Kong-based media Wen Wei Po report, cargo thieves intercepted a batch of chip that was to be delivered. The report hinted that the robbery occurred in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong around 3 pm on June 16. A logistics company was hired to deliver a batch of high-priced electronic chips (14 boxes) worth about HK$5 million (~$644,000) to the manufacturer’s warehouse.

Interestingly, the chip was only being transferred to a warehouse on the 8th floor of the same industrial building. The truck driver assistant was accosted in the elevator by three men who attacked him as soon as the elevator door closed, leaving him with some degree of injuries. The boy notified his colleagues who then called the police but the thieves could not be tracked down despite the police mounting roadblocks on major arterial roads around the crime site.

Earlier this month, a research report by market analysis firm “TrendForce Consulting” showed that the semiconductor industry has benefitted tremendously from the rising demand for a number of terminal applications, leading to an increase in their stock prices. The increase in demand compared to supply has also led to a rise in the prices of wafer and adjustment to the product mix to ensure profitability. The high demand could lead to an increase in the theft of chip cargoes and thus, foundries may need to increase their security level.

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