German automaker Volkswagen expects the global semiconductor shortage to continue for no less than the primary half of 2022, although the state of affairs ought to ease barely within the second half of the 12 months, automotive publication Automobilwoche was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“The volatile situation will affect us at least beyond the first half of the year,” Volkswagen head of procurement Murat Aksel informed Automobilwoche in an interview. Automakers worldwide have been affected by the semiconductor shortage, due to provide chain disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic in addition to sharp will increase in demand for shopper electronics.
Demand for the chips is ready to continue rising within the automotive manufacturing trade, and to that finish, the automaker’s focus in on working carefully with its suppliers to guarantee improved availability of the chips, as a substitute of trying to declare damages from suppliers who’re lagging behind on chip deliveries, Aksel stated.
In a separate Reuters report, different automakers together with General Motors, Ford and Hyundai equally predict that the chip shortage will ease within the second half of this 12 months, nonetheless automotive chip producers akin to NXP and Infineon have forecast that provide will continue to be quick.
“Supply limitations are far from over, and will persist well into 2022,” Infineon CEO Reinhard Ploss was quoted by Reuters as saying in an investor name, and Infineon is worried that the unfold of the Omicron variant of the virus would lead China to shut factories and restrict provide. Meanwhile, NXP stated that the trade wouldn’t be getting out of the supply-demand imbalance this 12 months, the report wrote.
Ford has additionally partnered with United States-based chipmaker Global Foundries to scale back the previous’s dependence on Taiwan chipmaker TSMC for older expertise chips, Reuters added.
“We’re very dependent on TSMC for our feature-rich nodes. The capacity is at risk over time as the industry moves to more advanced nodes, including us,” Ford CEO Jim Farley was quoted by Reuters as saying. We have very painfully discovered the lesson that we can not handle the provision chain for these key parts as we’ve got, Farley stated.
