The whole world is suffering from a chip crisis, and it’s imminent that the country affected most is the United States, a pioneer in manufacturing silicon. However, all the efforts from the new Biden administration seem to be facing a lot of challenges whilst solving the crisis.
According to sources, Hyundai Motor’s new electric vehicle IONIQ 5, needs a new chip which is currently hard to procure for the automaker. As a result, it has to halt its production for a while with the loss of many jobs and loss of profits.
The problem arises because an American semiconductor manufacturing company designs the chip, and the main component is the camera image sensor.Â
The chip production and supply process are complex; the design of the chip is sent to a factory in Italy for production, then complex circuits are printed on the original silicon wafers, and then these silicon wafers are sent to Taiwan, China for packaging and testing, and then shipped to China for assembly to the camera.
After all this, they are then sent to Hyundai auto parts suppliers in South Korea and finally arrive at Hyundai Motor’s production plant.
And currently, Hyundai Motor’s South Korean plant is experiencing a shortage of image sensors. Thus it made Hyundai the latest industry in the market to enter a line of industries suffering from global supply shortage.
Since the production of supply and manufacturing of the chip is a complex process on a whole different level, it’s this complex process that affects the Biden administration’s efforts in solving the chip crisis.
Yesterday, the United States President convened semiconductor industry executives in Washington to discuss solutions to the current chip crisis. Also, the US administration has decided to allocate US$50 billion in US chip manufacturing and research and development, claiming that this will help the US win the global competition.
