The issues of shortages and cost increases do not only affect the IT world, but they do not spare it either.
For almost two years now, we have been hearing about shortages, supply falling far short of demand, problems in the supply chain and cost overruns of all kinds. If signals seemed to exist before, things got out of hand with the Covid-19 health crisis, but just when it seemed that the situation was starting to improve, other problems were added to a more particularly tense situation on the tech front.
Indeed, while the demand for semiconductors has never been so strong in all sectors of the economy - IT of course, but also aeronautics or automotive for example - crises follow crises. For example, there have been major water shortages on the island of Taiwan, which remains one of the main centers of semiconductor production in the world. There have also been various threats to the supply of certain raw materials and, finally, we must also take into account the colossal investments made by the main companies in the sector to modernize and strengthen their production lines.
Whether it's Intel, Samsung or TSMC - the three main foundries in the world - the sums committed to expanding and opening new factories are in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Several analysts believe that while this could eventually lead to an increase in production, and therefore supply, and a drop in prices, this will only happen in a second phase with, first of all, a very clear increase in prices. Thus, WCCFTech relays several reports of price increases of +8% at TSMC, while some rumors even mention +20% for Samsung.
While the prices of processors, SSDs, RAM or graphics cards seem to have calmed down in recent weeks and if you really need to adjust your configuration, it may not be silly to equip yourself now ?
