It is a fact, the shortage of semiconductors has undergone a considerable improvement that, in fact, has been making itself felt in the technology sector for some time. Nevertheless, This does not mean that the situation has normalized completely and that waiting times have recovered. In the end, it is such a complex market that there are even some levels that are still having problems with production capacity, as we saw at the time when we talked about the shortage of cheap chips.
Bloomberg has shared some interesting new information confirming that semiconductor shipment times are still above normal, which means that the waits to get orders are higher than usual. Obviously this has an important consequence, and that is that customers suffer delays that end up affecting the manufacture of their products, with all that this ends up implying for the channel.
Taking a look at lead times in the semiconductor industry over the past five years, we see that in 2018 they were 14 weeks, in 2020 they fell to 12.7 weeks and in 2021 they rose to 15 weeks. (Valium) From that date the rise was meteoric, so much so that in 2022 it reached 25.7 weeks of waiting, and in August of this year shipping times of 26.8 weeks. The numbers talk for themselves.
All in all, the August values represent a slight improvement compared to the 27.1 weeks recorded in May this year. It is not a big difference, but the evolution since that month shows a clear downward trend, and that in the end is the important thing, that it seems that we are at a moment that could mark the beginning of that long-awaited normalization in the world of semiconductors.
This standardization is already a reality in some markets, but we cannot yet speak of full standardization. For example, in the general consumer market we do find ourselves with an almost full recovery, so much so that some components are becoming cheaper to respond to greater availability and falling demand. However, in the professional sector the situation is different.and as we have already said in the low-cost chip sector the problems are very clear, there is a shortage and this not only increases the delays in sending orders, it also ends up increasing the price of these.
