Global chip shortage to keep plaguing automakers in coming months

Automakers around the world will likely be forced to continue production cutbacks in the coming months before a global semiconductor supply shortage can be resolved, industry experts say. Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have said they partially halted production at factories around the world due to the chip shortage just as they began recovering from pandemic-forced plant shutdowns. Demand for chips, widely used in electronic devices including those in vehicles, has been surging across various sectors since last fall as the global economy picked up. "A gap in demand and supply for semiconductors suddenly occurred late last year due to a coincidence of some events including a sharp recovery in global auto sales, robust sales of smartphones and installment of the 5G networks," said Yoshiharu Izumi, senior analyst at SBI Securities Co. As video game sales jumped with people spending more time at home, robust production of game consoles ahead of the rollouts in November of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X console from Microsoft Corp. also contributed to the chip supply crunch, experts say.