[Stefan Mileschin]

At least in the car industry

German technology and engineering group Bosch has concluded that the semiconductor supply chains in the automotive industry are reaching chocolate teapot status.

Bosch board member Harald Kroeger warned that that supply chains have buckled in the last year as demand for chips surged worldwide. Coinciding with the surge in demand, several key semiconductor manufacturing sites were forced to halt production, Kroeger said.

In February, a winter storm in Texas caused blackouts at NXP Semiconductors, which is a major provider of automotive and mobile phone chips. In March, there was a fire at a semiconductor plant in Japan operated by Renesas, one of the car industry's biggest chip suppliers.

In August, factories in Malaysia have been abandoned as national lockdowns were introduced to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Volkswagen and BMW cut their production as they struggled to get the chips they needed to build their cars. These companies and semiconductor suppliers should now be looking to figure out how the chip supply chain can be improved, Kroeger said.

https://fudzilla.com/news/53427-bosc...ins-are-borked