Earlier, the auto industry warned that the shortage of chips could lead to billions of dollars in sales losses. Texas Instruments was hardly affected by this severe snowstorm and still operated as usual. Fortunately, the snowstorm had no significant impact on their operations, and the company continued to operate as usual. Texas Instruments is also an important supplier of automotive chips. According to the analysis and forecast of technology research company, if the chip factory is closed for three days, the impact on equipment productivity may reach 1%. Due to the surge in global demand for electronic products and the impact of the early COVID-19 epidemic on the semiconductor supply chain, experts predict that the chip shortage may last until 202 1 year. Will this not only affect global car sales, but also affect global car sales, and will also lead to the price increase of consumer electronic products such as game consoles and smart phones.
Although component suppliers including Infineon and Bosch plan to test new chip factories this year, the supply shortage may not be alleviated soon. The time required for automotive microcontrollers has doubled to 26 weeks, and the chip shortage may gradually ease from the end of March. The shortage of chips may last until later this year, and the person in charge of stmicroelectronics predicts that the shortage of chips will limit the production capacity of automobile manufacturers until the middle of this year. In addition, compared with advanced electronic products, the chips used in automobile parts are usually low-tech basic products, such as microcontrollers.
Some chip manufacturers are reluctant to invest in these backward production technologies, but this situation will change with the development of high-performance automobile technologies such as autonomous driving. Because technologies such as autonomous driving and assisted driving need more advanced chips to provide support, the relationship between chip manufacturers and the automobile industry will become more and more, and the shortage of chips will also pose a potential threat to other industries other than automobiles and electronic products. The medical equipment industry has not yet felt the impact of chip shortage, but this may be because the demand for chips is not big enough to compare with consumer electronics products. Supply and demand is a gradual process, and the impact of chips on industries other than automobiles and electronic products is still difficult to evaluate.