Understanding the Global Chip Shortage

Year: 2021

2021-08-21

Understanding the Global Chip Shortage

Erik Martin
Erik Martin

Semiconductors help power everything from your phone to your car. Here’s what to know about the major supply chain problem.

There are chips in nearly everything electric you own, from your phone to your computer to your car. There are even chips in items you wouldn’t expect, such as your washing machine, electric toothbrush, and refrigerator. But these tiny parts that power so much of our lives are now in critically short supply.

“Right now we have a global supply chain in crisis,” says Patrick Penfield, a professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University. “We’ve just never ever seen anything of this magnitude impact us before.”

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Komatsu Invests in Production and Service Center in Pará

Fabio Ferraresi
Fabio Ferraresi

Since 2020 Komatsu has been investing in Parauapebas, in the state of Pará in Northern Brazil, for a new facility that will provide maintenance for equipment and produce new equipment. The General Manager of the Mining Division for South America, Charles Medeiros says the unit will produce products for all regions in Brazil and for export.

Source: Automotive Business     Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Pará is an important region for mining where companies like Vale are located and demand for local support, especially for maintenance and spare parts availability, is significant. The total investment announced is less than US$ 8 million and it is small investment for high volume production. It’s most likely that the plant will only assemble CKD units for mining operations in that region.  PSR

Fabio Ferraresi is Director Business Development South America, for Power Systems Research

Toyota Suspends Production in Sorocaba, Brazil

Toyota is one of the OEMs least affected by the semiconductor crisis, but it now says production will be suspended for 10 days at its Sorocaba plant. The announcement does not refer specifically to semiconductors and other components and materials may be affecting the production capacity.

Source: Valor     Read The Article

PSR Analysis: The shortage of materials and price escalation is affecting all OEMs and suppliers in the automotive supply chain, from basic steel grades to semiconductors. Price escalation goes up to 120% in local currency and OEMs are struggling to keep the lines running and maintain competitiveness. This time, even Toyota, known as the best planner and most stable OEM over here had to push the brakes and take a breath to return production in a better ordered way.    PSR

Fabio Ferraresi is Director Business Development South America, for Power Systems Research

Ford Ends Production of Troller

Even though Ford has announced the end of production of the off-road Troller T4 in Horizonte, Ceará, Brazil, by September 2021, the secretary of industrial development of Ceará says that while Ford is working to sell the productive unit, it wants to keep the brand and the product design as its property. Government of the state is trying to change Ford executives mind about the decision.

Source: Autoespoerte / O Globo    Read The Article

PSR Analysis: Troller T4 holds an important share of the sports outdoor market niche and can be explored by specialized players. The product holds an important reputation among off-road lovers and the end of production will make a hole in the product lineup aimed at these people.   PSR

Fabio Ferraresi is Director Business Development South America, for Power Systems Research

Rapid Economic Recovery Puts Pressure on Supply Chain

Christopher Bamforth
Christopher Bamforth

After continued positive market trends which started towards the end of 2020, as well as good progress in their initiatives for integration and sustainability, the Finnish quarrying and mining equipment group Metso Outote grew their order intake in the second quarter by 43%. Supported further by a robust recovery fuelled by infrastructure investments in Europe and the US, and the quarterly orders were higher than in the first quarter.

They believe that many of these new order intakes are a direct result from their “Positive planet portfolio”. This new initiative has been designed help customers improve the sustainability and productivity of their operations. This initiative performed even better than expected, they have already estimated a value of €105m end of June, out of the predicted €120m for 2021. This highlights the ecological trend that we are seeing across most industries.

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How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Consume?

John Krzesicki
John Krzesicki

Today, Bitcoin consumes as much energy as a small country. This certainly sounds alarming, but the reality is a little more complex.

Our clients design and build generators installed for data centers, factories, distribution centers, commercial buildings, office buildings, grocery stores, and banks for emergency backup, peak shaving, or continuous power.  Bitcoin miners utilize data centers for housing and managing their data (server) farms.  

Bitcoin is a digital currency powered by many computers worldwide working to maintain the Bitcoin blockchain, a public database of all transactions on the network ever made. Bitcoin miners compete to officially record and verify the transaction and earn bitcoin as a reward. These transactions are verified by solving complex cryptographic and mathematical problems for which Bitcoin miners use a lot of power. The computers that record and verify Bitcoin transactions consume power at a level similar to some countries.  The exact amount of energy used by a Bitcoin transaction can vary based on demand.

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Most Regions Will Post 20%+ Growth in Truck Production

Chris Fisher
Chris Fisher

Editor’s Note: This is an updated report from the Q2 2021 Truck Production Index report produced by Chris Fisher and Jim Downey, Vice President-Global Data Products, in July 2021.

Question: What is the global truck production picture? What is the outlook?

PSR Opinion: Overall, medium and heavy truck demand will finish the year on a strong note, and continued strength is expected into 2022.  On-going supply chain disruptions will continue to impact production throughout the rest of the year and likely into 2022.

Question: What kind of global production volume do you expect for this year?

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2021-08-17

Edge Computing Makes America More Efficient

John Krzesicki
John Krzesicki

Business Development Manager

John Krzesicki talks with Carrie Goetz about the trends in edge computing, a movement that shifts data processing from the cloud to local data centers closer to the applications.

Transcript

Welcome to the PSR PowerTALK podcast, produced by Power Systems Research.

00:06 John Krzesicki

Hello, my name is John Krzesicki with Power Systems Research. I’m a business development manager for the US and with me today I have Carrie Goetz who is a fractional CTO for multiple companies. She’s been in the business for many years. She was also voted as being one of the most influential women in the tech industry in 2020.

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2021-08-10

Q2 2021 Truck Production Report

Chris Fisher
Chris Fisher

Senior Commercial Vehicle Analyst

Chris Fisher, Senior Commercial Vehicle Analyst at Power Systems Research, discusses the Q2 2021 global production facts and related forecasts for medium and heavy trucks, as reported in the quarterly PSR Truck Production Index.

Transcript

Welcome to the PSR PowerTALK podcast produced by Power Systems Research.

00:06 Joe Delmont

From Power Systems Research, I’m Joe Delmont, editor of PSR PowerTALK.

Today we’ll discuss global truck production with Chris Fisher. Chris is Senior Commercial Vehicle Analyst at Power Systems Research.

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2021-08-03

DATAPOINT: Personal Watercraft, 2021 NA Production: 104200 Units

Power Systems Research forecasts that the number of personal watercraft produced in North America in 2021 will reach 104,200 units; an increase over 2020 levels of about 24%.

This forecast has been developed by Carol Turner, Senior Analyst – Global Operations, at Power Systems Research.

Transcript 

Welcome to the PSR PowerTALK podcast produced by Power Systems Research. 

00:06 

From Power Systems Research I’m Joe Delmont, editor of PSR PowerTALK. Today we will discuss a data point covering personal watercraft production in North America this year.  

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