Semiconductor Shortage Issues Migrating from Front-End to Back-End Manufacturing with COVID, According to IDC

With COVID-19 continuing to impact the global economy in its second year, the semiconductor market continues to experience uneven shortages and tight supply. The general theme for semiconductors in 2021 was shortages in mature process technology nodes. International Data Corporation (IDC) expects tight semiconductor supply to continue through the first half of 2022 as the industry builds up inventory to normal levels. New COVID-19 surges have slowed manufacturing, but the real concern will be labor shortages. The automotive market continues to be impacted as chips move upstream, limiting automobile manufacturing and driving OEMs to utilize their semiconductor supply for higher value vehicles, which raised the average selling price of vehicles for 2021. “Automotive semiconductors will continue to be a limiting constraint on the automotive market through the first half of 2022, but barring any unforeseen shutdowns or semiconductor manufacturing issues, supply should gradually improve through the second half of the year,” said Nina Turner, research manager with IDC’s Enabling Technologies and Semiconductor team. “Adding in the time to manufacture the vehicle, this means the automotive market will begin to improve towards the end of 2022 and into 2023 if there are no other supply chain shocks.”