RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The whole world is affected by chip shortages, and Brazil is not immune. Domestic production of televisions, notebooks, and cell phones has been affected by the problem.
The Brazilian Electrical and Electronics Industry Association (Abinee) survey shows that 12% of Brazilian electronics manufacturers have already had to shut down part of their production due to a lack of components.
Also, according to the association, four out of ten electronic product factories in Brazil are affected by the shortage of chips. Admittedly, the situation is less serious than in the automotive sector. Unlike the latter, the Brazilian electronics industry has not yet completely shut down any factory.
On the other hand, the 12% of partially shutdown plants is the highest figure recorded since Abinee started this type of monitoring.
Because of this problem, 32% of companies surveyed reported delays in producing or delivering products to customers. The problem could get worse: Last June, 71% of companies said they had difficulty sourcing semiconductors, up from 55% in May.
Shortage expected to last until 2022
Abinee’s survey also shows that the shortage of chips, combined with increased freight rates and currency devaluation, meant that component cost increases were higher than average for 93% of the factories surveyed.
There is no short-term solution for nearly half of them: 42% of companies are working with the possibility that chip supply will not normalize until mid-2022. This prediction coincides with the estimates of companies such as Intel, Nvidia, and TSMC. For the latter, the problem may not even be solved until 2023.