Global Chip Shortage
In June 2021, a “big chip robbery” occurred in Hong Kong. A logistics company robbed 14 boxes of chips worth about HK$5 million in transit. There is a rumor circulating in the circle: in this case, the person who grabbed the core was actually the buyer. The reason is that the seller temporarily sits on the ground to raise the price, and the buyer finds someone to grab the goods in a fit of rage.
Regardless of whether the rumors are true or not, there is an indisputable fact: from automobiles, industries to consumer electronics, the global chip shortage has become a phenomenal problem, and finally, the pressure has also spread to the medical industry that we are familiar with.
In the Q3 financial report, GE and Philips have “commented” one after another. Supply chain and transportation problems have seriously affected the delivery of orders. The former’s medical business revenue was -5% year-on-year, and the latter was -7.6% year-on-year.
The application of chips in the medical industry is almost ubiquitous. Data shows that two-thirds of the world’s medical technology companies use semiconductors in at least half of their products. “The shortage of chips will affect all electronic medical products, and all manufacturers will be affected.” Affected.” A local head of the supply chain of digital X-ray machines told Medical Trends that compared with the end of 2019, a chip has risen from more than ten dollars to several thousand dollars at most, and the price has increased hundreds of times.
“Similar to robbing”, “in a very strange state of distorted supply”… The deformed market ecology makes front-line purchasers feel extremely depressed.
In the final analysis, the continuous shortage and skyrocketing of raw materials will eventually involve production shutdown and performance crisis. The negative effects of leading companies have already appeared, and a tense atmosphere is secretly and frantically pervading the industry.
In this round of “chip shortage”, the butterfly effect gradually spread.
• The first is the automobile industry. The demand for semiconductors for electric vehicles has increased by 5-10 times. The CEO of BYD said that because of “lack of cores”, about 7 million electric vehicles in the world have not been produced.
• Then, consumer electronics also fell tragically, and even Apple CEO Cook, the “master of supply chain management”, had to admit his counsel. In the fourth quarter conference call of fiscal 2021, Cook admitted that Apple’s loss of revenue due to the supply chain was more than $6 billion.
Outbreaks are often blamed as the primary cause.
With the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, many chip companies have lowered their sales forecasts and reduced orders. Misfortunes do not come singly. In 2021, a series of natural and man-made disasters, such as the Renesas factory fire, the Texas power outage, the blockade in Malaysia, and the drought in Taiwan, China, will further aggravate the “difficult production” of global chips.
An even more surprising reversal is that in a special period, the market for consumer electronics products increased instead of falling, and the various rescue plans launched by governments around the world stimulated demand growth instead.
With this rise and fall, the chip shortage finally broke out in silence throughout 2021, and the crisis gradually escalated.
Cheersonic is the leading developer and manufacturer of ultrasonic coating systems for applying precise, thin film coatings to protect, strengthen or smooth surfaces on parts and components for the microelectronics/electronics, alternative energy, medical and industrial markets, including specialized glass applications in construction and automotive.
