Do you dream of a console or computer under the Christmas tree? Forget it. Electronics prices are on the head [TOPtech]

The prices of graphics cards are breaking all-time records, and finding a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X on the shelf today is more difficult than hitting a six in the Lotto. Reason? As usual, there are several, but the most obvious one is the COVID-19 pandemic.

US-China Trade War

Although more than two years have passed since its outbreak, and the most important factories in China or Taiwan are slowly increasing their production capacity, we still feel the consequences of interrupting supply chains.

Some experts forecast that the situation will normalize in the coming months, but the most pessimistic ones warn that we will have to deal with the pandemic hiccups by 2023.

Problems with component availability

Another reason is directly related to the first. The pandemic and the resulting slowdown in factory work, combined with increased demand for electronics, led to an unprecedented crisis in the semiconductor market.

Silicon wafers used, among others for the production of chips, solar cells and microcircuits, they have become a real scarcity commodity, and their prices have soared.

We must remember that the electronics industry is a system of connected vessels. For example, if Micron and Samsung cannot meet the growing demand for GDDR6 memory chips, NVIDIA will have a problem with the production of graphics cards, and AMD with the supply of chips for the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles. and Microsoft.

This problem applies not only to electronics manufacturers, but also, among others, automotive industry. Due to the lack of available components, many concerns, such as Skoda, Toyota or Opel, had to temporarily suspend the production of new cars.

US-China Trade War

The US-China trade war added fuel to the fire. In September 2020, the then US President Donald Trump decided to sanction SMIC, China’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, because of its alleged ties to the Chinese military.

As a result, companies such as Samsung if TSMC had to withdiversify the sources of acquiring silicon wafers, which further aggravated the ongoing crisis. For the Taiwanese TSMC, an additional problem turned out to be the worst drought in the region in over 50 years.

As if that were not enough, the crisis that hit electronics industry it coincided with the craze around cryptocurrencies. The rates of bitcoin, ethereum and other digital coins in recent months have been breaking new records, and to “mine” cryptocurrencies equipment with high computing power is necessary.

This type of “excavator” consists of several, a dozen or so, and even dozens of GPUs. Therefore, digital miners buy out all available graphics cards – raising their prices, draining the market, and at the same time complicating the lives of people who dream of a new computer or graphics card.

What does all of this mean for us as customers?

Firstly, the lack of electronics on store shelves, and secondly, extended delivery times for devices that we ordered online. Of course, there are also higher prices, although in this case the rampant inflation and the extremely weak zloty also have a say. So it remains for us to be patient. After all, next year it will also be Christmas.