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Economic Policy

Semiconductor shortage that has hobbled manufacturing worldwide is getting worse

After nearly a year, automakers are still cutting back on production and losing sales in a supply crisis that is also hitting other business sectors.

By
September 23, 2021 at 6:04 p.m. EDT
A Toyota Motor Corp. employee installs an engine in Aichi, Japan. Toyota initially avoided the worst of the semiconductor shortage but is starting to feel the pinch. (Shiho Fukada/Bloomberg News)
5 min

The global semiconductor shortage that has paralyzed automakers for nearly a year shows signs of worsening, as new coronavirus infections halt chip assembly lines in Southeast Asia, forcing more car companies and electronics manufacturers to suspend production.

A wave of delta-variant cases in Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines is causing production delays at factories that cut and package semiconductors, creating new bottlenecks on top of those caused by soaring demand for chips.