Monitoring Desk
Austin-based NXP Semiconductor said it would likely lose $100 million thanks to a month-long shutdown in the wake of Texas’ cold-weather-driven electricity-grid collapse, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
Why it matters: A global chip shortage — stemming from pandemic-related supply-chain disruptions and climate-change-related disasters — has hobbled U.S. auto manufacturing and could threaten the vigor of a post-pandemic economic recovery.
- NXP’s Austin plants are back online, but Samsung’s have not resumed full production.
- In Taiwan, a major center for semiconductor production, a drought tied to climate change is threatening chip production, which depends on an abundant supply of water.
- An analysis at Seeking Alpha suggests that big tech companies like Apple have more experience at planning for long-term chip needs and have locked in their supplies whereas the auto industry, with its “just-in-time” production philosophy, may have a harder time.
