IC shortages to last till demand eases for notebooks, gaming gears, says Foxconn chair

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DigiTimes

November 16, 2020

Shortages of components, especially those ICs fabricated at 8-inch fabs, will not ease until terminal market demand slows down for notebooks, gaming machines and other devices supporting stay-at-home economy, according to Foxconn Technology chairman Young Liu.

Liu said IC components have been in short supply due partly to insufficient wafer capacity support for chips vendors and partly to persistent strong pandemic-driven demand for stay-at-home applications.

Liu continued it is difficult for 8-inch wafer fabs to ready additional capacity to satisfy demand in the short term, and therefore how long the ongoing shortages of ICs fabricated by such fabs will last will depend on consumer market demand.

Components shortages have haunted the electronics supply chains since the Covid-19 broke out in China early 2020, ranging from mechanical components and power supply initially to LCD driver ICs, power management ICs and other peripheral ICs recently.

A recent resurge of the pandemic in the US and Europe is likely to fuel demand for remote work and study applications, prolonging the components shortages.