Arno Antlitz, CFO of Volkswagen, has recently commented in an interview that he is convinced that there will continue to be a lack of semiconductors throughout this year, and also during the next one, which means that the situation will not really be resolved until 2024.
It is important to note that the CFO of Volkswagen no longer talk about a shortage of semiconductorsor at least not in the sense that we have been seeing in recent months, but rather refers to a lack of supply in relation to demand, that is, to a lack of productive capacity to cover a demand that is increasing.
What we have just explained is easily appreciated when we see that the executive went on to say that, at the end of this year, major bottlenecks will begin to be resolved that have been greatly affecting the supply of semiconductors globally, which will allow the industry return to a production level similar to the one they had in 2019. This will be achieved in 2023, which means that we will have a production capacity greater than the current one, but not adjusted to real demand, with all that this will entail in terms of supply.
This situation could be completely resolved in 2024, according to the CFO of the German company, although it is important to note that this is a forecast, and not a confirmed date. A couple of months ago we saw that Volkswagen had confirmed that the supply of chips had started to improve, but this does not mean that the situation is completely back to normal, obviously.
The weight of semiconductors in the automotive sector will be increasing, due to the increasing reliance on technology by the motor world. This dependency will not stagnate, on the contrary, it will grow more and more. We only have to think about the evolutionary leaps that have taken place in this sector in recent years, and everything that is to come: fully connected cars, fully autonomous driving systems, increasingly advanced infotainment equipment and control systems. state-of-the-art intelligent, among others. All of this depends on chips, and chips that are becoming more advanced, complex and expensive.
