The COVID-19 pandemic has crippled the production capacity of several industrial sectors globally, which has ultimately affected the global economy at a massive scale. According to research experts, the most affected sectors are electronics and automobiles, which is majorly due to disruption of global supply chains and logistics. Like the body depends on the brain, the digital world now runs on chips (semiconductors). Industry analysts have carved out different horizons for supply to match demand. The stand-off between the US and China, the pandemic-induced pent-up demand for certain products -all- add up to uncertainty.
Now, when the lockdown was announced in various parts of the world, the demand for electronic items increased among consumers that ranged from IT hardware products and kitchen appliances. But, according to several dealers, retailers, and industry experts, the demand could not be fulfilled because of a cascading and abrupt international shortage of semiconductors. It might be the diminutive component of an electronic item, but it is also the most vital and essential element that powers a device.
Since the past one year, the semiconductor industry is still struggling to meet the required demand. The sector started witnessing some ray of hope during Q3 2020, but the arrival of the second wave of COVID-19 has severely affected the sector. But, to keep up the demand of consumers and industry, manufacturers all over the world have started scaling up their productions.
As the global electronics, cellular, and semiconductor companies are ramping up production capacity, the domestic and global engineering services firms are seeing an increasing demand from the chipset designing segment. As of now, a majority of industries including gaming, cellular, electronics, and automotive are struggling massively owing to severe plummet from international semiconductor manufacturing firms.
In an exclusive interaction with CircuitDigest, Faisal Kawoosa, founder of tecARC said, “Currently, the demand from chipset designing segment is very small. There is no clear timeline for when the demand would escalate. The demand for semiconductors is now varied. It is true that several sectors are ramping up their productions, but they are not getting the volume of the chipset. Hence, the demand for chipset designing is not such a positive factor at this moment.”
According to industry experts, numerous countries such as South Korea, US, Japan, and a couple of European nations are reported to have started building new fabrication units, which is ultimately leading the augmented demand for chipset designing companies.
In spite of the severe semiconductor crunch, several companies, including manufacturing firms, are busy with their R&D work, which is also spearheading demand for chip designers. The demand for digital engineering services and new-age solutions such as electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, IoT (internet of things), AR/VR (augmented reality/ virtual reality), connected ecosystem, medical devices, 5G with embedded systems are on the rise.
