Chips, also called semiconductors, are technological products that allow micro-scale macro operations. In the current and rapidly developing technology age, the usage area of chips is increasing day by day. Chips are used in every imaginable technological product, especially in the automobile, computer, telephone, home electronics and defence industry.
During the pandemic process, the halt of chip production for a while and the increase in people's interest in technological products caused the supply-demand balance of semiconductors to deteriorate in the market. Chip manufacturers, who cannot meet the increasing demand, have a common view that this deepening global crisis cannot be resolved from today to tomorrow. At best, experts say there may be a relief by mid-2022, but they point to 2023 or even 2024 as the year when supply can fully meet demand. An average of 300-400 in a standard vehicle; Considering that an average of 3000 chips is used in a high-end vehicle, the size of the chip need of automobile manufacturers is even better understood.
The chip crisis, which started in 2020 and was deeply felt all over the world in 2021, but whose end cannot be predicted exactly when it will end, seems to have little intention of falling off the agenda. The chip crisis, which started in the automotive sector and spread to other sectors, caused many automobile giants to interrupt production from time to time in their factories in Turkey and around the world. Companies that produce high-tech devices such as Samsung, LG and Apple have also announced that they have limited their production quantities due to chip shortages.
The spare parts sector, which is intertwined with the automotive sector, also suffered from the chip supply crisis, and one of the sectors most affected by this crisis was the spare parts sector. The use of hundreds or even thousands of chips in the electronic components of new generation high-tech cars has deeply affected the automotive supplier industry and spare part manufacturers. The use of an average of 40 chips, even in the simplest of in-vehicle electronic components, made the production of original auto spare parts difficult. Sector representatives stated that due to these disruptions in the supply of semiconductors, customers have been waiting for a spare part for months and serious grievances have been experienced in this process.
The decrease in automobile production due to the chip crisis increased the interest in second-hand vehicles, and as a result, serious increases were seen in used car prices. From time to time, the second-hand price of some models has exceeded zero. When the increase in the exchange rate was added to the supply shortage experienced in automobiles due to the chip crisis, serious increases occurred in automobile prices in Turkey. As the demand for second-hand vehicles increased due to the lack of production in new vehicles, second-hand vehicle prices naturally increased. Currently, people continue to have difficulties in finding vehicles due to the chip crisis and problems with the supply of other raw materials. Even if consumers have money, they cannot buy the brand and model vehicle they want. Customers pay a deposit for the vehicle they want, queue up and wait for the vehicle to arrive for months. One of the reasons for these problems is that some big galleries stockpile a limited number of vehicles that come to Turkey by opportunism.
Most of the chips, which have become strategic products like oil and gold in the new world order, are produced in Asia. The fact that China is the largest manufacturer and has recently started to use the chip crisis as a political tool has created discomfort in European countries, especially the USA, and caused a change in attitude towards chip production in these countries. These countries focused on the goal of producing the chips they needed by establishing factories in their own countries instead of having them made in Asian countries, and accelerated their R&D studies. Experts believe that the usage area of chips will expand even more in the coming period and accordingly the demand for chips will increase even more.
Countries that cannot produce chips with their means will face a difficult process in the future. It is understood that countries that cannot produce chips used in passports, identity cards and defence with domestic technologies will not be able to have a presence in the world in the coming years.