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Good News at Last: U.S. Chipmaker to Double Output as Automakers Hammered by Shortage

The global chip shortage has caused massive disruptions in the automotive market, and companies like Ford, General Motors, Toyota and others have been having a hard time dealing with the lack of semiconductors.
Car production lines have been massively hit by the lack of semiconductors 6 photos
Photo: Daimler
Daimler car productionDaimler car productionDaimler car productionDaimler car productionDaimler car production
Most of them turned to temporary production halts, while others have even decided to sell cars without certain systems, all in an attempt to reduce the number of required chips.

And while the industry keeps struggling to find a way to reduce the impact of the chip shortage on their manufacturing operations, some good news finally comes from U.S. chipmaker GlobalFoundries.

The company has announced that it expects its chip output to be more than double the volume it recorded in 2020, and what’s more, it hopes to expand the capacity even further in 2022.

So in other words, its production has doubled this year and will continue to grow next year, with GlobalFoundries ready to invest more than $6 billion to boost its manufacturing capacity at the global level.

In plain English, this means GlobalFoundries wants to make more chips at all its facilities, not only those in the United States, trying to align the production with the demand and therefore, ship more semiconductors for automotive applications, also by expanding the existing wafers to adapt them for the car industry.

In theory, this is all good news, but on the other hand, the company’s officials warn that the global chip shortage just wouldn’t come to an end overnight. And while its production capacity is growing, it still expects the lack of semiconductors to continue into 2023, so carmakers theoretically still have some two more years to struggle with this problem.

Earlier this month, Ford announced a temporary suspension of the production lines making the Ford F-150, citing the lack of chips for the reason. General Motors also confirmed it plans to idle the operations at several North American plants, blaming the same problem for its decision. Toyota has also lowered its production expectations for this year, estimating the output could ramp up in the last months of the year.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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