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JEMC said:

Captain_Yuri said:

That only really applies to TSMC but Samsung and even Intel are also facing shortages. While Covid might not be the main cause of the water shortages, it does affect TSMC's backup plan which is to get the water shipped to the fabs from elsewhere. Covid is also affecting shipping docks and supply routes so you have shipping containers waiting for extended periods of time with cargo as well as issues with delivery trucks being delayed.

It's true that the watter issue only affects TSMC but, given how big they are in the semiconductor business, the effects are noticed elsewhere. Samsung is still relatively small and Intel has found itself using "old" tech as they took a long time to move past their 14nm process, and neither Samsung nor Intel problems are Covid related, but the result of their own doing.

The container situation is also the result of our own doing, with companies relocating its production facilities in China or south-east Asia for its cheap production costs. The problem is that the route isn't balanced, a lot more containers come from there to North-America and Europe than the other way around, and the result is that, with no one carrying empty containers back to Asia, there's a shortage of them. Yes, Covid accelerated and even made problem more evident, but it didn't create it. It's quite a facepalm situation, if you ask me.

Cargo ports having troubles to keep up with the work is also a result of the previous explanation. Too many things get imported from Asia and the ports have reached a point where they lack room to store more containers, which is why California announced that they'd start issuing fines to the companies that didn't pick their containers within a time period.

Samsung and Intel may be small by comparison to TSMC but they are still very much key players. Covid also does affect them because Covid affects supply chain as well as employees. They can make the wafers but those needs to be shipped to facilities to different manufacturers around the world which then needs to be repackaged and made into products. And every time a new covid variant comes into play, countries start re-enforcing their quarantine rules and such. It halts the entire process down because a new Covid Variant = People getting sick = lockdown rules getting re-enforced = supply chain delays = shortages.

The container problem isn't just a China/South East Asia problem. It's a world wide problem. The main ports in California for example are still backed up and they got backed up exponentially since Covid started. Covid may have not created the problem but that's not the issue. Covid is the straw that broke the camels back and until it goes away or we manage it, the camel ain't gonna recover.