Yeah, it's more than just a chip shortage, and it's effecting more than just the auto industry. I'm in the industrial equipment segment, and we can not get microprocessors, capacitors, printed circuit boards, even transformers and contactors. The global electronics supply base it still a long way from recovery and meeting demand capacity. Our current backlog is the largest it's ever been. Not because of production capacity at our facilities, but it's completely down to availability of electrical components.
Trust me, manufacturers across all segments aren't crafty enough to conspire to cut production to this degree, and no one would rather turn customers away than sell them a product. There isn't a business out there that can raise prices enough to make up for the lost revenues from these shortages.
Shouldn't even matter anymore, how long were those places truly shut down? 2-3 months? We are heading into 3 years into this thing. And auto makers would love (and will even try) to keep this going but it wont. Those lots will be jammed with cars/trucks and thousand on the hood to move them. It only takes one to load up inventory and everyone else will follow. "Gee., I really need a truck, Toyota has 55 Tundras on their lot and Dodge says I can order and wait 6 months" Not hard to see where that goes.
Its called price fixing and its extremely against the law, and they're doing it.
