WASHINGTON, D.C. – With COVID-19-driven supply chain issues causing a worldwide shortage of semiconductors – and, subsequently, a shortage of the new cars that depend upon them – the largest automotive supplier in all of Europe, Bosch, is anticipating that those shortages will continue into 2023, bottlenecking new car production even further, unfortunately.
Chairman of Bosch’s Board of Management, Stefan Hartung, made the announcement at the company’s Tech Day 2022 in Dresden, Germany this week.
For (auto) semiconductors there are areas where demand continues high and there will still be some bottlenecks in these areas where this problem will still be relevant in 2023 but will see some improvement in 2023,” he said.
Automobile manufacturers worldwide have been enduring shortages of vital computer chips as demand grows for the vehicles – including passenger sedans, SUVs, and trucks, among others – that are currently sitting on assembly lines in unfinished states.
The dearth of new vehicles on car lots as of late have only served to drive up demand on the secondary market, with prices of used cars skyrocketing over the course of the last year.
The announcement by Bosch this week echoed the sentiments expressed by Mercedes-Benz in July, which at that time had theorized that the chip shortage would not only last through the remainder of the year, but extend into next year as well.
However, subsequent reports opined that the shortage may have already been coming to a close due to a series of mitigating factors reducing overall global demand, including record-high spikes in inflation, ongoing lockdown efforts in China to curb the spread of COVID-19, and Russia’s war with Ukraine. Another contributing factor to the anticipated recovery of the chip market, reports said, was that chips were being ordered in excess of current demand.
Berenberg Bank concurred with this stance, noting that the automotive industry could expect semiconductor availability to increase as 2022 goes on.
But in direct contrast with the above reporting, Global consultants AlixPartners cemented the more negative outlooks of both Bosch and Mercedes-Benz, and doubled-down on them, saying in a new report that chip shortages would not only continue into 2023, but potentially beyond that and into 2024 as well.
Chip supply increases but remains a constraint on pent-up demand-driven sales through 2024, continuing the operating inefficiencies while re-shoring and resiliency costs rise,” AlixPartners said.
The semiconductor shortages are expected to have a distinct impact upon the consumer industry as well, according to experts, including – but not limited to – smartphones, microelectronics and communications technology.
Christopher Boyle is an investigative journalist, videographer, reporter and writer for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® as well as other independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher works on a wide variety of topics and fields, has been featured in print and online in a variety of publications, from local to national, and helps keep a keen-eye on what’s happening in the automotive world for Auto Buyers Market.