The relief lasted only seven minutes.

No sooner had a relevant computer game portal reported last week that the Playstation 5 from Sony was being sold again at a well-known electronics retailer than the correction followed immediately.

Everything sold out again.

When replenishment will come: uncertain.

Anyone who wants one of the coveted consoles currently has to have the instinct of a hunter.

Or be prepared to pay several hundred euros more than the recommended retail price of 499 euros from lesser known providers on the Internet.

No wonder that many parents think of their Christmas shopping with horror.

It could be an expensive party this year - or one with sad faces.

Julia Löhr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

Consumer electronics supply bottlenecks are just one example of the new shortage economy that businesses and consumers are struggling with.

At the beginning of the corona pandemic, masks and toilet paper in particular were in short supply, now pretty much everything is missing.

Car manufacturers are desperately looking for chips, construction companies for wood, publishers for paper.

This should also be reflected in the economic forecast that the five leading economic research institutes will present next Thursday.

The 3.5 percent growth that Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) last promised for this year are considered barely achievable.

Bottlenecks are only a temporary phenomenon

While Corona is becoming less important in everyday life, the consequences of the virus are only now really being reflected in industry. Take microelectronics, for example: there is actually enough production capacity for chips in the world, says Ulrich Ackermann, head of the foreign trade department at the VDMA mechanical engineering association. The only problem is that many manufacturers mothballed the machines for the simple chips that are used in the automotive industry and also in mechanical engineering after major car manufacturers abruptly stopped their orders in the spring of 2020. "The chip manufacturers in Taiwan and South Korea now mainly produce the ultra-modern chips for smartphones and game consoles," says Ackermann. Whether and when they would bring the machines back into operation for the less demanding chips,is ultimately a question of price. “Right now the market is completely crazy. A memory chip that used to be available for 2 euros now costs 200 euros. "

Economists assume that the bottlenecks - and thus also the rising prices - are only a temporary phenomenon.

"I expect that the current problems will be resolved by the beginning of 2022," says Jens Südekum, who researches international business relations at Düsseldorf's Heinrich Heine University.

“When the ventilators became scarce in spring 2020, it took three or four months, then there were more than enough.

Yes, it takes time for the landing page to respond.

But it's only a matter of time. "