Chip delivery times reach record levels of 20 weeks as shortage drags on

[Shawn Knight]

Facepalm: Certain types of silicon have longer lead times. Bloomberg, citing Susquehanna Financial Group data, said microcontrollers that control functions in vehicles, home electronics and industrial equipment, now have lead times of 26.5 weeks. The average wait time for logic chips like these is six to nine weeks.

We’ve heard multiple stories regarding the ongoing chip shortage and how long it could potentially stretch on. Just last month, for example, TSMC said it expected the auto industry shortage to start to subside in the coming months but anticipated the overall semiconductor industry to continue to struggle into 2022.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger also believes it could be another couple of years until the industry is back on track.

The latest research data from Susquehanna Financial Group seems to validate these predictions.

According to the company, chip lead times – the amount of time that passes between when a company orders a semiconductor and when it takes delivery – increased to 20.2 weeks in July. That’s more than eight days longer than in June. It’s the longest gap the firm has witnessed since it started tracking chip lead times in 2017.

Lead times for power management chips that regulate the flow of electricity in a variety of devices have been reduced, the publication added.

Shares in tech companies like Micron Technology and Nvidia are down more than two percent today on the news.

With the holidays looming and chip lead times growing, it could be another tough period for retailers and consumers alike. Of course, chipmakers like TSMC aren't complaining one bit.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90756-chip-delivery-times-reach-record-levels-shortage-drags.html

 

[Dimitriid]

The thing about price fixers is that they quickly get addicted to that unprecedented demand and unmatched bargaining position until someone steps in and breaks up the party.

At some point they'll make a strategic mistake like telling Apple "Yeah we can't deliver your orders and will need to raise your prices considerably" then you might see Apple suddenly lobbying for an international investigation into price fixing....Or just buying out TSMC or something like that but that's much less desirable than just putting political pressure to normalize things.

 

[emmzo]

The thing about price fixers is that they quickly get addicted to that unprecedented demand and unmatched bargaining position until someone steps in and breaks up the party.

At some point they'll make a strategic mistake like telling Apple "Yeah we can't deliver your orders and will need to raise your prices considerably" then you might see Apple suddenly lobbying for an international investigation into price fixing....Or just buying out TSMC or something like that but that's much less desirable than just putting political pressure to normalize things.

They`ll split the pie, it`s more profitable that way, heck, even your government can say "Great! more money, more taxes". Unfortunately, there`s no end in sight period.

 

[Dimitriid]

They`ll split the pie, it`s more profitable that way, heck, even your government can say "Great! more money, more taxes". Unfortunately, there`s no end in sight period.

They could, but I feel they're resources important enough to be granted the status of "Strategic resource" which is a nice way to say "We need to control this and take control away from our enemies or private interests not under our absolute control"

See if kids can't get GPUs, nobody cares. But once you tell the military "We can't build more of your weapons, drones and other stuff either, we've got no chips" then stuff suddenly gets done in a hurry.

In my example I only talked about Apple but there could be something impacted that would get them moving. But we'll see.

 

[captaincranky]

Peolpe have long suggested that instead of "cursing the darkness", one should, "light a candle".
The trouble nowadays, is that nobody knows what a candle is.

So, times change and the ancient adage morphs into, "curse the darkness, or grab an internet connected 'smart' bulb".

So, it's looks like we'll be stumbling around in the dark, bumping into things for quite awhile.

 

[yeeeeman]

Well...this is sorta expected. people have stayed in house because of the virus. a lot of industries have been halted or had sporadic activity. there is a lot of checks now because of the virus, so air/water transportation is a lot slower/tedious. there is now also the vaccine that seems to kill a lot of people. plus the people that stayed at home developed a super anxious state which was treated with buying new electronic gadgets. so all in all, this isn't surprising or unexpected at all.

 

[Skjorn]

The thing about price fixers is that they quickly get addicted to that unprecedented demand and unmatched bargaining position until someone steps in and breaks up the party.

At some point they'll make a strategic mistake like telling Apple "Yeah we can't deliver your orders and will need to raise your prices considerably" then you might see Apple suddenly lobbying for an international investigation into price fixing....Or just buying out TSMC or something like that but that's much less desirable than just putting political pressure to normalize things.

Haha you think Apple is competent enough to run TSMC?? Baahhahahahahahaaa.

 

[gamerk2]

See if kids can't get GPUs, nobody cares. But once you tell the military "We can't build more of your weapons, drones and other stuff either, we've got no chips" then stuff suddenly gets done in a hurry.

To be fair, that's why the military tends to shy away from using bleeding edge technologies on their front-line units. I've worked on embedded systems where something like a Cortex A53 is considered state-of-the-art. And generally, the semi-conductor parts needed are brought in bulk at the start of the program so shortages only become issues decades down the line (when the initial supply of parts starts to dwindle).

Also note these concerns are why the DoD tried it's hand at designing/manufacturing CPUs back in the 70's; they quickly realized doing so was expensive. [Nevermind the absolute atrocity of an architecture the DoD came up with; imagine the 8080's segmented memory was itself segmented. For obvious reasons, nothing would ever fit into memory.]