The lack of microprocessors not only hit the automotive industry badly this year.

Consulting firm Goldman Sachs identified 169 industries that suffered from constant chip shortages this year.

These include manufacturers of smartphones, computers, WiFi routers and medical devices.

And experts do not yet expect a real turnaround in 2022.

A number of problems that have contributed significantly to the global chip crisis still exist.

In order to better assess the future situation, it is worth taking a look back: At the beginning of 2020 the world was still looking rosy. The semiconductor industry had just come out of a protracted downturn and was on the verge of a strong economic upswing. But then Covid-19 emerged and the automotive industry in particular feared weaker demand. In fact, vehicle sales collapsed briefly in the spring of 2020. Almost in panic, the chief buyers of the automobile companies canceled their orders to large chip manufacturers such as TSMC in Taiwan. However, that turned out to be a serious miscalculation.

"Suddenly the demand for cars rose sharply again," says Kota Yuzawa, automotive analyst at Goldman Sachs. The canceled manufacturing capacities in the chip industry were no longer available to the auto companies.

They had long since been passed on to the manufacturers of consumer electronics.

"During this time we worked from home, did sports from home, went to school from home and entertained each other at home," says industry expert Julia Hess from the Berlin Foundation for New Responsibility.

This has led to increased demand for smartphones, tablets, laptops and game consoles.

The global chip stocks were quickly used up.

China bought in a big way

The situation was exacerbated by a chain of unfortunate events that perhaps only climate activists had foreseen. In February 2021, chip manufacturers such as Samsung, NXP and Infineon had to stop operations in Austin, Texas. After heavy snowstorms, the power supply failed and the semiconductor factories, the so-called fabs, could no longer be shut down in a controlled manner. This not only damaged the production facilities, but also components of the works' infrastructure.

There were also failures in Japan - here due to natural disasters and fires in chip factories.

In March 2021, for example, a production plant of the chip manufacturer Renesas Electronics was damaged in a major fire, which exacerbated the shortage of microcontrollers.

As if that weren't enough, big politics also contributed to the global chip shortage.

The then US President Donald Trump had resolved to limit the global influence of Chinese high-tech companies such as Huawei and imposed sanctions in the area of ​​chip technology, among other things.

As a result, Chinese companies bought chips and manufacturing equipment on a large scale.