If you are planning on ordering any new computers or other IT hardware by the end of this year or at the beginning of 2022, you should order now. IT hardware manufacturers around the globe are having trouble securing supplies of semiconductor computer chips, delaying the production and delivery of goods and threatening to push up the prices paid. A shortage of all sorts of processors and other components could affect the availability and price of IT hardware for the next 12 to 18 months, according to CEOs of major tech companies including Intel, IBM, Extreme, Cisco and Juniper.
Several factors are driving the chip shortages, including the coronavirus pandemic, which plunged the global economy into recession last year, upending supply chains and changing consumer shopping patterns. During the pandemic, tech companies, whose products were boosted by lockdown living, snapped up as many as they could. Other shocks, such as US government sanctions on Chinese technology companies and extreme weather, have also contributed to the shortage of supply.
According to Goldman Sachs, 169 US industries embed semiconductors in their products. The bank is forecasting a 20% average shortfall of computer chips among affected industries, with some of the components used to make chips in short supply until at least this fall and possibly into 2022.
“We are seeing delays right now of weeks and even months on laptops, desktops, servers, docking stations, switches, i7 processors, LCD monitors and wireless access points, “ said Platte River Networks’ Procurement Manager Kelsey Kingsbury. “Clients should think about ordering sooner rather than later. When stock becomes available, back-orders are filled first and inventory is gone within days I have never seen delays like this in our industry. We are looking at delays through the end of this year and most likely continue up into Q1 and possibly Q2 of 2022.”
