Having trouble getting parts? Electronic component shortages may last through 2011

Having trouble getting parts? Electronic component shortages may last through 2011

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Electronic component shortages may last through 2011 via Chris

Memory chips and other fundamental components such as resistors and capacitors are in short supply after their makers slashed output, fired staff, put equipment purchases on hold or went out of business during the recession.

In contrast to what happened in 2001 after the dot.com crash, makers of components for the consumer electronics, telecoms, automotive and solar industries are not scrambling to meet short-term demand, risking another boom-and-bust cycle.

…”All of a sudden, you have a particular transistor that was made by three people in the world, and now there are two.”

Lots of folks in the open source kit biz are having trouble getting parts in a timely manner as well.

4 thoughts on “Having trouble getting parts? Electronic component shortages may last through 2011

  1. Collin Cunningham says:

    While trying to restock a part for my kit, I ran into this problem. I experienced a distinct moment of revealing ignorance, “b-but, there’s always more – !” Followed by a deeper realization of something I already knew, “no, there’s not.”

    The variety and quantity of products manufactured on this planet is straight up staggering. So much so, that it can be easy to take availability for granted.

    1. capt.tagon says:

      You are starting to see the reality of a depression. Economists have been going on about a “double dip recession” because most of them having never really worked for a living, do not have “hands on” experience with reality. The recession never went away, what we’ve seen is a short term resurgence due to intermediate manufacturing having increased demands for finished product. They use up all the residual stocks from basic manufacturing and materials stockpiles, but because the sources for these have shrunk and the work force has been laid off or companies have gone out of business, there is nothing to sustain their manufacturing. Sadly, we’ve got quite a few years of this left. Be flexible, learn to substitute and rework with whatever is at hand. There’s more than one way to do it.

      Expect a lot of the product diversity to disappear, starting with “through hole” devices. Time to start getting your SMD techniques up to snuff.

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