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Auto chip shortage caused by a in the latter half of 2020, it found that
surge in demand — IC Insights semiconductor suppliers, after having
shifted production capacity away from au-
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — The vast ma- tomotive applications, couldn’t meet their
jority of the current headlines regard- renewed demand and a serious shortage
ing the auto industry revolve around ensued.
the semiconductor device shortage
that began in earnest in 2021 and has IC Insights believes that the above sce-
carried over into 2022. nario is not the primary reason for the IC
shortage now impacting the automotive
The commonly accepted reason for industry.
this shortage:
In March of 2020, in the very early stages The real reason
of the COVID-19 pandemic, auto demand In IC Insights’ opinion, the real reason
plunged worldwide and automakers sub- behind the automotive IC shortage lies in
sequently began to shut down plants and the surge in demand for automotive ICs in
halt semiconductor orders from their sup- 2021 and not from the semiconductor sup-
pliers. pliers’ inability to ramp up production.
While this was happening, there was a In fact, device suppliers shipped 30%
surge in demand for cellphones, TVs, com- more IC units to the automotive indus-
puters, games, and home appliances from try in 2021 as compared to 2020 (figure)
a global population that was sheltering in which was much greater than the 22%
place and increasingly working from home. increase in total worldwide IC unit ship-
ments last year.
Production capacity switched
As a result, semiconductor suppliers Moreover, 27% more IC units were
switched their production capacity away shipped to the auto sector in 2021 as com-
from automotive devices to devices that pared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
were being used in the other electronic
systems that were in higher demand. The 2021 jump in automotive IC unit ship-
ments was by far the highest percentage
When the auto industry came back online increase since 2011, easily exceeding the
20% increase in auto IC shipments logged
in 2017.
3X jump in shipments
As shown, the 52.4 billion in
automotive IC shipments last
year was 3x the 17.6 billion
in auto IC shipments regis-
tered in 2011.In comparison,
total worldwide shipments
of ICs in 2021 (394 billion)
were about 2X what they
were in 2011 (194 billion).
icinsights.com
