Small businesses squeezed by chip shortage, worry tech giants will be supplied first
With most of the world's chips made outside of Canada and brands as big as Nintendo, Samsung and Apple vying for them, they fear larger players will get access to supply first.
Canada’s technology sector is worried small businesses will take longer than foreign giants to rebound from a global shortage of semiconductor chips — and say consumers might pay the price.
With most of the world’s chips made outside of Canada and brands as big as Nintendo, Samsung and Apple vying for them, they fear larger players will get access to supply first and their consumers will end up with higher prices and long wait times.
“(Manufacturers) want to satisfy their biggest customers, but for the little guy like me, I’m getting hit. I’ll lose half my revenues this year,” said Filip Ivanovski, the founder of Gametime Technologies Inc., a Quebec company that makes portable scoreboards and has been out of chips for months.
“I’ve been completely sold out since probably early March and now I’m in an at least four-month delay before I even get my inventory.”
The chip shortage disrupting Gametime and others materialized last year as people purchased new gadgets while spending more time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chip factories were simultaneously facing temporary closures, mostly to quell the spread of the disease, but one Japan plant was also engulfed by a fire and another in Texas was shut down by a cold snap.
When they reopened, there was a backlog exacerbated by the launch of the coveted PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and a trade war between the U.S. and China, where many chips are made.
Now, Apple is warning the shortage could cut US$4 billion from its sales, General Motors has already temporarily laid off 1,500 workers at its Ingersoll, Ont. plant because of the lack of chips to implant in vehicles and Canadian toymaker Spin Master Corp. says it is considering price increases to deal with the situation.
IBM chairman and chief executive Arvind Krishna called the situation “very worrisome” because capacity can take months to scale up and the shortage impacts everything from cars and consumer electronics to tablets and computers for students.
Melissa Chee, the president of VentureLab tech hub in Ontario’s York Region, worries about the ramifications of the shortage so much that she and a series of manufacturers, business leaders and investors co-founded Canada’s Semiconductor Council earlier this month.
The group wants to build a semiconductor strategy for the country and bolster its supply chain resilience, giving Canada a piece of the $7-trillion market for such chips and small businesses some peace of mind.
Building that strategy will take time. Chee estimates semiconductors can take between five and seven years to be commercialized and end up in products.
IBM, for example, unveiled a two-nanometre chip this month that promises to use 75 per cent less energy than existing seven-nanometer chips and quadruple battery life, but it won’t be in production until 2024.
“The semiconductor industry is a huge industry that’s always been known to be cyclical and then what COVID really did is amplify that,” said Chee.
“As COVID went on, demand from consumers and other stakeholders didn’t really match the orders that were placed and there was a lot of unpredictability.”
A national strategy, she said, will give Canada its first comprehensive view of what needs the country has and how an ecosystem can be built to service them.
