Chip shortage, hoarding forcing record wait times for technology suppliers

Credit: AppleInsider

A combination of the worldwide chip shortage and hoarding by manufacturers is creating a "danger zone," as processor lead times slip to the highest level since 2017.

The global chip shortage, affecting firms from the automotive industry as well as general technology, has led to the longest lead times since the Susquehanna Financial Group started tracking it in 2017.

According to Bloomberg, the group says that the wait time between ordering a processor and having it delivered lengthened to 17 weeks in April. Before the start of 2021, it was more typically around 13 weeks.

Susquehanna report writer Chris Rolland said that this was an average across all industries, and that there are more extreme examples. Auto chip supplier NXP Semiconductors NV now has lead times of over 22 weeks, for instance.

And unspecified smaller companies, manufacturing headphones, have even seen lead times extent to a year. Reportedly, this has led to major redesigns and, in one case, a product being abandoned.

Bloomberg says that a lengthening lead time can mean that companies are buying up more processor capacity. They do it to protect against shortfalls, but this kind of hoarding can cause problems if a firm ends up with more inventory than it can sell.

"Elevated lead times often compel 'bad behavior' at customers, including inventory accumulation, safety stock building and double ordering," wrote Rolland in his report. "These trends may have spurred a semiconductor industry in the early stages of over-shipment above true customer demand."

Adding to the issue is that Taiwan is in the middle of a drought. The country is the base for Apple processor supplier TSMC, and the firm says it does not expect the drought to cause problems.

However, TSMC, and others, have been preparing for drought concerns by experimenting with ordering and delivering water to its facilities.

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6 Comments

MacPro

said about 2 years ago

Based on Tim's supply chain chops I would suspect Apple is the least at risk of all manufacturers. I hope so.

lkrupp

said about 2 years ago

This morning Senator Chuck Schumer wants to pass a $54 billion plan to advance chip manufacturing and R&D in the U.S. Too little too late in my opinion. Are we just now becoming aware that our entire economy and national security needs are in the hands of China, Samsung, Japan, others and have been for decades.? The U.S. military is particularly dependent on chip suppliers from Asia. The military can’t build warplanes, ships, tanks, guns these days without sophisticated electronics. A U.S. soldier these days is almost completely dependent on electronics for the ability to fight. Should tech giants like Apple get into the chip fab business? Could they even do it if they are broken up by anti-capitalists in the government?

In my opinion this is the result of decades of chasing cheap labor and the reason for that is refusal of U.S. citizens to pay higher prices for products manufactured domestically. It’s a Yin and Yang sort of thing.

Beats

said about 2 years ago

I hope this hits the knockoffs hard and some even go out of business.

lkrupp said:

This morning Senator Chuck Schumer wants to pass a $54 billion plan to advance chip manufacturing and R&D in the U.S. Too little too late in my opinion. Are we just now becoming aware that our entire economy and national security needs are in the hands of China, Samsung, Japan, others and have been for decades.? The U.S. military is particularly dependent on chip suppliers from Asia. The military can’t build warplanes, ships, tanks, guns these days without sophisticated electronics. A U.S. soldier these days is almost completely dependent on electronics for the ability to fight. Should tech giants like Apple get into the chip fab business? Could they even do it if they are broken up by anti-capitalists in the government?

In my opinion this is the result of decades of chasing cheap labor and the reason for that is refusal of U.S. citizens to pay higher prices for products manufactured domestically. It’s a Yin and Yang sort of thing.

These stupid deals to give China our manufacturing has caused that dirty country to steal out IP and create cheap knockoffs of OUR products.

China is the Google of countries. You can’t help people, they’ll take advantage of it.

dysamoria

said about 2 years ago

Maybe we shouldn’t be needing processors for stuff like headphones...

There is a lot of over-engineered, unnecessarily complicated product. So many devices that should not be general purpose computers are actually that under the skin.

OctoMonkey

said about 2 years ago

Beats said:

I hope this hits the knockoffs hard and some even go out of business.

lkrupp said:

This morning Senator Chuck Schumer wants to pass a $54 billion plan to advance chip manufacturing and R&D in the U.S. Too little too late in my opinion. Are we just now becoming aware that our entire economy and national security needs are in the hands of China, Samsung, Japan, others and have been for decades.? The U.S. military is particularly dependent on chip suppliers from Asia. The military can’t build warplanes, ships, tanks, guns these days without sophisticated electronics. A U.S. soldier these days is almost completely dependent on electronics for the ability to fight. Should tech giants like Apple get into the chip fab business? Could they even do it if they are broken up by anti-capitalists in the government?

In my opinion this is the result of decades of chasing cheap labor and the reason for that is refusal of U.S. citizens to pay higher prices for products manufactured domestically. It’s a Yin and Yang sort of thing.

These stupid deals to give China our manufacturing has caused that dirty country to steal out IP and create cheap knockoffs of OUR products.

China is the Google of countries. You can’t help people, they’ll take advantage of it.

The last company I worked for manufactured virtually everything in-house. Although we did out-source (bare) PCBs, metalwork and painting, that work was handled by local companies. The owner was determined to not have anything handled out of house if we could do it in-house, largely so that our IP would not be stolen. I do mean just about everything. We wound our own transformers, had in-house CNC machines (alongside a traditional machine shop), had surface mount pick and place machines, the works! It was a great place to work!

Additionally, we did not utilize JIT manufacturing methods. Instead, we worked as a traditional manufacturer with a parts store room. We kept a good supply of most electronic components in inventory - typically 1+ year (some obscure items we had 10+ years supply while other high volume components were just a few months). There have been other storms in the past which wreaked havoc with JIT manufacturers (the tantalum capacitor shortage which occurred around 2000 comes to mind). There certainly are advantages to JIT manufacturing, but when there is a hiccup in the supply chain your manufacturing ability can come to a screeching halt.

The loss of hi-tech manufacturing in this country saddens me, but I really don't see that changing anytime soon (if ever) - the reasons for it shifting overseas are manyfold, but in the end boils down to costs.