Electronic component supply in chaos?

[VK3DRB]

I have found recently there is a severe shortage of electronic components. Design work includes choosing parts where one criterion is plentiful supply, but many common parts are zero stock and have ridiculous lead times. Other than R's and C's, Digikey appears to have their shelves almost bare. Mouser is not much better. According to Findchips and Octopart, parts are not available from Arrow and others either.

One high volume product design uses a ECS-327MVATX-3-CN-TR, a 1.8432 MHz oscillator. Looked good - low cost, plenty available from 11 March according to Digikey. So I created the footprint & 3D model and added the part into the circuit schematic and layout. Last night I ordered a few samples and a other parts for testing purposes. But all of a sudden Digikey changed the availability date to 13 May . I emailed Digikey yesterday asking what was going on - no reply.

If I am choosing a component but I cannot get that part even for testing, I will simply look elsewhere. One design I worked on recently preferred an STM8 CPU. I abandoned ST completely because there is zero stock of most of their micros anywhere and instead I used an MSP430. The end product volume might be 50K+ per annum. Bad luck, STM, you lose and Texas Instruments wins . Can I trust ST Microelectronics in the future ?

I suspect this shortage is due to COVID-19, the big freeze caused by global warming in the USA, China/USA political bickering, and the trillions of dollars cash splashed causing too much demand on electronics goods so demand is outstripping supply. And maybe poor planning by the supply chain. I also noticed prices have increased noticeably on some parts. Are my observations isolated, or are others finding similar issues and the electronics industry is indeed in strife?

[CatalinaWOW]

Another factor you didn't list is shipping problems.  Ocean shipping is backed up at ports for a variety of COVID reasons: direct infection of workers, fear of infection and surprisingly huge growth in shipping quantities because so many people are entertaining themselves by buying things.  Air shipping is also affected by COVID.  Huge reduction in passenger flights, and much airfreight piggybacks on passenger aircraft.

It might be worth a call to your favorite distributors with questions about the parts you are interested in.  The explanation might satisfy you.

[GlennSprigg]

I agree with 'CatalinaWOW', except we've found it different in Australia...
Myself & the Missus have received 'shipping' from not only the other side of the country, but from Companies OverSeas in Bali too,
and even from Bali, they have arrived in 4 days!  Obviously it seems that Parcel/Package transport/flights/trucks is different from
;people' movement, during this COVID crisis.  Maybe it's different in some countries, but here in Australia, our BIGGEST problem is
going to be further dealings with China in the near future!!  (Due to political situations I'm not going to go into!!!)
We'll be looking at alternative countries for basic supplies, a lot sooner than we think!!   

[Brumby]

Be careful comparing shipping times.

It is one thing to cite a personal order that can be boxed up and carried to the post office in one hand that could be on a flight in a day or two ... and it is quite another if you are talking about containers with bulk parts that are travelling by sea.

Covid has caused immense disruption to sea freight.  In the past, ships will be heading to port A with a list of trips already lined up to carry more freight to port B and then on to port C .... and so on.  This is done to keep the ships moving - and profitable - as a ship going nowhere is just an economic burden.  With Covid, access to ports has been compromised and the ability to unload and load freight severely affected.

I would not want to have been in the sea freight business over the last year - and I suspect it will be a while before the cogs start meshing again across that industry.


Political issues also won't help.