Chip shortage
You have undoubtedly heard about the chip shortage in the car industry as a result of the Corona crisis. Now you are probably wondering: “What does that have to do with my keyfob or RFID equipment”?
To summarize, car manufacturers thought that Corona would cause them sell fewer cars and they have greatly reduced their orders for automotive electronics and chips. But at the same time, the demand for chips for PCs, laptops, smartphones, playstations, servers for data centers and the like increased, partly due to people working from all over the world. The chip manufacturers shifted their production capacity from microcontrollers and chips used in cars to other chips.
In addition, mother nature has also wreaked havoc. Suppliers of microcontrollers have been shut down by natural disasters. And the cold snap in Texas (home to NXP and Samsung factories) caused power cuts that shut down their factories.
NXP
Coincidentally NXP, one of the leading automotive chip manufacturers, is also one of the leading suppliers of access card chips (Mifare) and chips for the laundry industry and libraries (HitagS, iCode SLIX2). Those small ICs are also complex microcontrollers.
NXP is being pushed hard throughout the entire automotive industry supply chain (not only the car manufacturers themselves, but also suppliers such as Bosch, Continental and others) to make chips for them. The problem is that making a chip looks simple at first sight but is a process that can take up to 6 months from the raw silicon, until a ready-to-use chip is produced. Transferring a production line from one type of IC to another can therefore take months.
RFID suppliers
EasyLogic and IDCARDplaza already notice:
- Mifare chips and derivatives thereof are already becoming more expensive, and availability is reducing;
- HitagS and SLIX2 are already scarce. We are already receiving delivery times in 2022 for orders;
- prices for plastics and PVC for cards are increasing;
- HID Global, our biggest supplier for RFID tags has increased all their prices by 10% effective immediately, from the 22nd of December 2021;
In terms of reading equipment, RFID readers and antennas, we also see prices rising and delivery times longer:
- Nordic ID has announced a significant price increase starting June 4, some RFID readers will become 10 to 20% more expensive;
- The Impinj Speedway readers with 1, 2 and 4 antenna ports are currently a bit more difficult to deliver, with delivery times of three months with a current order. The new Impinj R700 is (still) in stock. Note: Impinj has announced a formal end-of-life for the 1 port R120 Speedway reader.
At RFIDplaza we are currently increasing the minimum stock levels for several frequently sold items, such as the TSS readers, HID Omnikey series, NXP Mifare and “Fudan” ISO14443A 1K blank cards and NFC tags with NTAG213 chipset to provide you with a quick service. continue to be. Nevertheless, it may happen that we may be short and we will immediately inform you of an up-to-date delivery date, so that your production planning can be adjusted accordingly.
Corona transport
As a result of the Corona virus, and lock downs in many countries, the number of flights between Asia and Europe has decreased dramatically. We are currently still encountering shipping delays with packages waiting at airports for available flights for one to two weeks. Additionally shipping costs are still much higher than normal due to Corona.
Shipping by sea (container) is also disrupted because of global supply chain issues, and the price for that has increased 10-fold in recent times. Recently a shipment which normally would take 6 weeks to arrive in Rotterdam from China, took a total of 12 weeks.
Please contact us
We keep monitoring the situation! In case of doubt or for thorough advice on alternative products please contact us. Would you like to know more about logistics RFID applications and track & trace or do you need help in selecting the right system and antennas for your application or suitable RFID tags? Contact the RFID specialists via sales@easylogic.nl and telephone + 31-182-389530. Of course we are also available for a video call, via Skype or Microsoft Teams. Order your RFID products safely in our webshop. RFID readers, hand terminals and accessories can also be easily ordered via https://www.rfidplaza.nl/