Chip shortage worsens, manufacturers now wait 21 weeks

You must have heard of the global chip shortage that is basically a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, manufacturers across all sectors were struggling with a long waiting period for semiconductors, which led to factories halting production and shortage of the finished product overall. The latest report now only confirms worst fears for manufacturers as the chip shortage has increased the waiting time drastically.

In a recent report from Bloomberg, it is said that the delay between a manufacturer ordering semiconductors and getting its delivery has increased to 21 weeks in August. Previously, this period was usually spanning a total of six days. The information comes via a research from the Susquehanna Financial Group.

Chip delivery period grows longer

That said, it’s not all bad news across all the semiconductor industry. “While lead times for analog and Broadcom Inc. chips got worse, there are positive signs for power management chips and optoelectronic components,” says Susquehanna analyst Chris Rolland said in the report.

Throughout the year, the global chip shortage has seen big names like General Motors halting production in the US. In the world of tech, the effects are visible, especially in the PC industry. Console makers Sony and Microsoft have been struggling to push units of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles on the shelves. GPU manufacturers are also facing the same issue, with the latest bunch of RTX 30 series cards harder to secure.

That said, the effects are not as visible in the smartphone industry. Apple’s newest iPhone 13 models are available widely, although the Pro models are yet to be on the shelves in India. Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme and Motorola have been consistently churning out new products without issues of stock shortage.

However, Jio had to delay launching its JioPhone Next owing to chip shortage. The phone was supposed to hit the shelves in early September but the date was eventually pushed to the Diwali period.

Xiaomi's upcoming Mi 11 Lite NE 5G is another product highly influenced by the ship shortage situation. The original Mi 11 Lite 5G relied on the Snapdragon 780G chip and even went on sale. However, the Snapdragon 780G was harder to procure and Xiaomi eventually had to settle for the more readily available Snapdragon 778G. Hence, the NE version is the same as the previous model in terms of the basic features and only differs in terms of the chipset.