Semiconductor chips are electronic circuit boards that hold transistors wirings and whatnot. These are basically what makes electronic devices work. A collection of these is called an Integrated Circuit(IC). Had it been not developed, computers these days would have taken up the size of a room and don’t even try to conceive a mobile phone!
These hold many components in them and are quite complicated. The production of semiconductors are done in batches. The onslaught of the pandemic disrupted the production of these semiconductors for some time due to many furloughs and logistic difficulties.
2020 saw the biggest sale of laptops and smartphones and electronic gadgets in general. Smartphones and Laptops were needed by the employees as remote work became a thing and for students as these were their virtual classrooms. Even sale of automobiles were on the rise as people preferred private vehicles to public transport. This further added to the demand of semiconductors.
All of these led to a shortage for semiconductor chips. Worldwide.
- Last week, Ford Motors announced that it would cut down the production of its popular model F150.
- Apple had faced shortages early November 2020. On January 28, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters that sales of Macs, iPads and the iPhone 12 Pro model had faced constraints.
- On February 3, Japanese electronics major Sony Corp it was struggling to build enough PlayStation 5 consoles due to shortage of semiconductors.
- Indian Automaker Mahindra and Mahindra had also taken a hit in production.
The Global semiconductor giant TSMC has announced that it will prioritize auto chips. It is the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world to which comapnies like Apple and Qualcomm out source their chip production. This shortage is expected to last at least for the first half of 2021.
