Hannover Messe
Do not suspend investments, chips are in short supply for longer
By dpa
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“There’s something else coming up,” fears the president of the ZVEI association, Gunther Kegel. At the beginning of the Hannover Messe, he appealed to companies not to reduce the planned expenditures for the ecological conversion of industry too much, despite the war in Ukraine and the uncertain energy supply.
(Picture: Valerybrozhinsky – stock.adobe.com )
The German electrical and digital industry appeals to companies and politicians not to reduce the planned expenditure for the ecological conversion of the industry too much despite the war in Ukraine and the uncertain energy supply. “It is important that investments in decarbonization are not deferred,” warned the president of the association ZVEI, Gunther Kegel, on Monday. At the beginning of the Hannover Messe, he acknowledged with regard to alternatives to Russian oil and gas such as liquefied natural gas (LNG): “Yes, it will be more difficult to achieve the climate targets.” But you have to “get out of this situation as quickly as possible”.
For the time being, there is no relaxation even with the lack of microchips, which are in countless products for industry and consumers. “The fact is that we still have a significant problem in the chip supply,” said Kegel. A number of companies have bulging order books, on average with a range of five to six months. But in many cases, the processing is again dependent on sometimes very long delivery times of the chip manufacturers.
It’s getting better. The question is, when?
“It will get better, but probably not before next year,” Kegel estimated. The chip shortage could “remain tense for a longer period of time”. ZVEI Managing Director Wolfgang Weber pointed out the simultaneously rapidly growing demand for semiconductor components, which reaches up to 8 percent per year worldwide. The association proposes to rapidly expand a “semiconductor ecosystem” for Europe with more in-house production in order to reduce dependence on Asian chip suppliers in particular. There are also EU initiatives to do this, and recently heavyweights such as Intel announced major investments.
The manufacturers of electrical, electronic and digital technology in Germany assume that they will be able to maintain the production growth target of 4 percent in 2022. “It could be difficult if the war does not end next year and there is a spiral of further sanctions and counter-sanctions,” Kegel told the German Press Agency. The lockdown of several weeks in Chinese trading metropolises such as Shanghai will also “chase a shock through the supply chains, the consequences of which we will only see in six to eight weeks. There’s something else coming up.“
(ID:48392770)