Why Apple has chips for iPhones while Ford got caught short
- Ford Motor Co says the global chip shortage could affect the company until 2022
- Apple has so far been able to meet demand in part by burning through supply buffers
On the same day that Ford Motor Co said it would be able to produce only half as many cars as planned due to a global chip shortage, Apple Inc announced blowout quarterly earnings as smartphone and computer sales soared, with the chip shortage having only a small impact on its business.
The contrasting results show how major players in the electronics industry, accustomed to the long time horizons of chip production, have mostly avoided major disruptions from the chip shortage. Automakers and their suppliers, with “just-in-time” production lines that can more easily be spun up or changed to produce different varieties of parts, have not.
Apple said Wednesday that it would lose US$3 billion to US$4 billion in sales in the current quarter due to limited supplies of certain older chips.
Still, that represents just a few per cent of Apple’s projected sales of US$68.94 billion for the fiscal third quarter, according to Refinitiv revenue estimates, compared to a massive 50 per cent production hit at Ford.
German automaker Daimler also warned last week that the chip shortage would likely carry over to next year.
The supply bottleneck threatens to derail the country’s fragile economic recovery.
Ford chief executive Jim Farley singled out a March fire at a Renesas Electronics Corp plant in Japan as a key factor in its chip shortfall.