Component Supply Chain To Face Shortages In Coming Months After Japan Crisis

DigiTimes predicts that there will likely be component shortages in the next two months as a result of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami from earlier this year. In fact, many key players from Asus, HTC, Motorola and Apple have been aggressively acting to secure various components such as PCBs and glass touch panels.

Japan’s earthquake as well as the power brownout policy have already created strong pressure on the global IT supply chain, especially for PC players and in addition to component shortages, the labor shortage issue in China has also grown to become another menace to the IT industry.

Prices will inevitably rise for many of the key components such as touch panels in the face of inadequate supply. It may also bring the unfortunate consequence of more defective components being used as manufacturers become desperate to maintain production to keep up with demand.

Foxconn, a key manufacturer for Apple products, is facing not only a shortage of components but also labor. The double knock on supply may be enough to impact on shipments of iPad 2 and iPhone 4 orders in the second quarter