by Nicole Mello, Marketing Manager
However, although production is back to normal, a new surge in demand driven by changing habits fuelled by the pandemic means that it is now reaching crisis point. The chip shortage looks set to persist for some time yet. It can take up to two years to get complex semiconductor production factories up and running.
The severity of the global chip shortage has gone up a notch over the last few weeks and it’s now looking as though millions of people will be impacted. As technology has advanced, semiconductor chips have spread from computers and cars to toothbrushes and tumble dryers — they now lurk beneath the hood of a surprising number of products.
The message and recommendation from the majority of our manufactures is for companies to forecast their future IT requirements and anticipate the orders to try and avoid any major problems as the earlier the order is placed the earlier the products are produced and delivered.
Apart from the issue with the long wait and sometimes scarcity of products, pricing is also being affected and will continue to raise as long as the crisis continues. As part of a large entity, we are able to call upon all major distributors and manufacturers across Europe. We have anticipated with stock constraints and even though we are doing our best to continue with high levels of stock in our warehouse in Germany, we are highly advising our customers to place their orders sufficiently in advance as you will be entering a ‘waiting’ queue system, you don’t want to be at the end of the queue every time you need something.
The "Out of stock" frustrating message will continue, plan ahead, don't expect to be able to buy or order something and get it immediately, ask for an alternate product, be prepared to take higher- or lower-spec products if the one you want is not available.
