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The Chip Shortage Recovery Has Turned a Corner
Semiconductor delivery times have shortened, but they remain higher than prepandemic levels.
- March 23, 2023
Delivery times for most types of semiconductors have come down over the past year, but they remain nearly three times higher than before the pandemic-induced shortage, according to Bain & Company analysis of data from LevaData. On average, across chip types, delivery lead times were 27 weeks in January, 9 weeks below their January 2022 peak.
However, the shortage continues to hit the industry unevenly. Lead times for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and microcontroller units (MCUs) remain high. Optoelectronics lead times haven’t changed much since the pandemic. Analog chip delivery times were on the rise last year due to automotive demand and long qualifying lead times, but since October they’ve receded sharply; time will tell whether this decline is a true reset. Just as the shortage’s effects have differed by chip type, so too will the time to recover vary significantly by end market, based on the types of chips each industry uses.
The Next Evolution of the Chip Shortage
Bain Partners Peter Hanbury and Anne Hoecker discuss the state of the chip shortage amid the tech recession.