A shortage of semiconductor processors has resulted in delivery times of some items as high as 99 weeks (nearly two years), according to American electronics distributor Sourcengine. In February, the average delivery time for 16-bit processors increased by 15 weeks compared to October last year, to 44 weeks. Power electronics can be on the way to customers for 37 weeks (more than six months).

The cost of the same processors, according to Gartner, has grown by an average of 15% over the past year. In Japan, technology manufacturers have been forced to reduce production volumes due to a shortage of chips. In the fourth quarter of last year, 26% fewer air conditioners were produced than two years earlier. Production volumes of digital cameras fell by 25%, automakers were forced to reduce the production of passenger vehicles by 16%.

Chip manufacturers are trying to increase production volumes, they began to consume 14% more silicon wafers alone last year, and the utilization rate of many production lines exceeded 90%. At the same time, market participants cannot count on a significant increase in production volumes using mature technical processes. In the segment of 40-nm and more mature technical processes, output volumes grew by only 4%, and 28-nm and more modern chips began to be produced by 13% more.

One of the new theories int he chip manufacturing circles is that huge availability issues are caused by special join US and EU operation to hit China. Huge amount of chips are being bough by US and EU companies on freshly printed government money and never actually used, some of them are stored and some utilized.