Having worked in the auto industry I can say this is the sort of thing was never, ever expected from a supply shortage. The frailty of the global supply chain network has been brutally exposed these last 14 months.
I think it’s the exact opposite, supply chains have held up remarkably well. If I had believed some people here we would have been eating each other by now but apart from a shortfall in toilet paper things have been fine.
https://www.wastedive.com/news/ball-molson-coors-aluminum-ca...
EDIT: not trolling, i'm really curious. Fresh broccoli is available all year round everywhere and it is so much better than the frozen stuff. Why would anyone buy it frozen?
The vast majority of people in the world live within walking distance of a small neighborhood market.
I can see why fresh would be better if you were planning on eating the broccoli raw or perhaps steamed, but since I mostly use broccoli in soup or stir fries, it ends up fairly thoroughly cooked. In which case I don't believe I would notice a difference.
I purchase frozen vegetables (stuff like brocc, cauliflower, peas, carrots) because they come pre-chopped, last near indefinitely so I don't have to worry about finishing them before they rot, and whatever amount I want at that moment can just be poured out of the bag, pre-chopped, into whatever (usually single pot) meal I am making.
Stir-fry for one. Frozen release "tons" of water that just slams the heat to "0".
Fresh, dump it in and it cooks without adding water.
The only time I go for fresh broccoli is when making a stirfry or salads.
Something happened to the people in China who take 10-100 electronic parts manufactured there and turn them into 1, to deliver to assembly in the auto’s destination for the purposes of tariffs (by reducing the count of imported parts from 100 to 1). Because of the weird mechanics of manufacturing origin, which definitely affects how cars and networking equipment have to be made, this is my hypothesis for why we’re only hearing about these issues from a very narrow set of industries and not others.
In terms of what could have happened my bet is it’s going to be pretty horrible.
Yes
Without special RVC exception for car companies, some US made cars would have to be stamped as Made in China/Germany/Mexico as per rules of origin.
Auto manufactures are spoiled, they get anything they want whenever they want from the Government every time they start crying. Whether it's multi billion dollar tax breaks (Ford, Oakville, GM Oshawa, etc), multi billion dollar Gov programs (cash for clunkers) at the tax payers expense or being allowed to screw their suppliers for billions through bankruptcy (GM).
Don't excuse their poor management, forecasting, greed for frailty of the global supply chain. It's not like a asteroid hit Taiwan.
Actually, Apple HAS done this. And it can kill a company.
For example: Peregrine Semiconductor who got bought by Murata in the aftermath.
(From https://www.benzinga.com/tech/14/08/4808511/peregrine-ceo-ji...)
Additionally, their lack of planning and foresight contributed to the larger semiconductor industry going into a panic, causing a purchasing frenzy that dried up all the channels.
People in the larger industry saw what happened with the automotive semiconductor segment and went, well... maybe I should just keep 1 year of all my critical ICs on hand just to be safe.
I agree with you that we need more fabs, but they need to be thought of as (from a US centric viewpoint) national security assets. The reality is that if we want significant infrastructure, we need to do major investment from the US Government to ensure they are built here in the US. There are either production minimum guarantees, subsidies on the construction or operational costs to basically cover the costs of having excess capacity.
I think it's also disingenuous to continue to refer to increased demand as shortages because the implication is that there was a shortfall in production. The reality is that there was an increase in demand and limited capacity.
Overall I'd say you're right. Capacity has so much inertia that it lags beyond the created demand. That isn't the fault of the foundries, it's just an artifact of unpredictable market behavior.
This is 100% of the issue. Those other two are issues with large business in general (tax breaks) or car dealerships (who pushed c4c).
The Big Three have been able to run their suppliers ragged through collusion because, for many suppliers, all they produce are car parts sold to The Big Three. Which means their production figures, profit margins, and general growth are completely at the whims of automakers. The few critical suppliers with a chance to get out of the industry are acquired.
The Big Three are learning the hard way that they don't have the kind of influence over chip makers that they do over their other suppliers.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-fukushima-anniversa...
Having not worked in the auto industry, but having worked in the logistics industry, I and many many others like me have consistently warned about global catastrophes like pandemics causing unforeseen consequences of the kind we're currently experiencing.
To say that it's "frustrating" that nothing has been done before now, and nothing will likely be done - when I've literally written detailed reports complete with advanced statistical analysis for my upper management - is a massive understatement.
Hopefully the next pandemic will be severe enough that society itself is disrupted to the point where "rich" people suffer, perhaps even die. For many readers, this comment will come off as "morbid" or perhaps even be misinterpreted as a "call to violence", but in reality, this is simply "logical" behavior (survival instinct) that would result in a truly massive supply chain breakdown, and humanity as a whole doesn't learn a lesson unless there's unbearable suffering involved. I imagine a pandemic that kills 10% of the people it infects instead of 1% would cause sufficient pain for "elites" who very wrongly believe themselves to be above such inconveniences to seriously rethink their desire for "profits"... especially when a bunch of poor people who can't hoard food all raid their little compounds and the resulting unpleasantness that will result from such an outcome. It's unfortunate that I have to wish for such a thing to make people reconsider something as simple as warehousing additional supplies for unforeseen circumstances, but clearly we're there.
1. https://www.yahoo.com/news/ford-extends-shutdown-stellantis-...