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This holiday season, the name of the game is shopping and shipping early. The rising cost of things like labor, transportation and fuel have gummed up supply chains and logistical operations across the world and the entire global economy — but some things are harder to come by than others and not all shortages are created equal.
See: Expect All-Time High for Holiday Sales Despite Supply Chain Issues and Labor Shortages
Related: As Anxiety at the Grocery Store Mounts, Over Half of US Shoppers Demand Supply Chain Transparency
Here’s a look at the materials and critical components behind the short supplies and high prices that defined so much of the American economy over the last year — as well as the products that are harder to find and more expensive for you to buy right now as a result.
Semiconductor Chips
Silicon computer chips — commonly called semiconductors or microchips — are nearly universal to the gadgets that make our world go. Everything that has a screen — and many, many electronics products that don’t — require at least one microchip to function.
Microchip production is highly complex and takes a long time to complete — about three months, from start to finish, according to Blue Ridge Technology. The vast majority of the world’s microchip production is concentrated in East Asia, where the coronavirus originated and where factories shut down first. Nearly all of the world’s chip production ground to a halt for months, but demand never fell, as so many experts predicted it would.
Find Out: How To Avoid Supply Chain Issues Interfering With Your Holiday Shopping
Chips are critical components in so many devices that in April, Goldman Sachs was able to identify 169 industries — from soap and cement production to breweries and eyeglasses manufacturing — that were suffering from the shortage.
Here are the products that the shortage messed up most for you:
- Cars, trucks and SUVs: No industry has suffered or continues to suffer more than the world’s automakers. Remote work and education sent demand for consumer electronics soaring so the chips were steered there at the expense of the auto industry. Yet demand for cars persisted. The shortage forced automakers to slow or even halt production on all but their bestselling and most profitable models. The result is bare-bones inventory that has forced limited choices and high prices on buyers all year long, particularly in the used-car market, which is not expected to recover for years.
- Consumer electronics: The move to remote work, school and shopping launched a frenzy of demand for computers, tablets and other consumer electronics. In …….
Source: https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/economy/all-products-supply-chains-have-messed-up-for-you/