the capacity of chip suppliers was channeled to that new demand because no one was buying cars nor riding planes chips are set to remain in short supply for at least a year as demand from carmakers and other manufacturers remains robust and ramping up production capacity takes time said the head of southeast asias integrated microelectronics incthe maker of electronic components a unit of philippine conglomerate ayala corp has already topped 2020 in order bookings this year as economies reopen said arthur tan imis chief executive officer with more than 20 facilities in 10 countries the company is the sixthlargest provider of electronics manufacturing services to carmakers he said the vehicle products it assembles include power modules cameras and inverters advt automakers from toyota motor corp to general motors co have been ensnared by the chip shortage forcing many to cut vehicle output while manufacturers of consumer electronics have also been hit tan discussed the situation in an interview thursday and his comments have been lightly edited for brevity and claritywhat is the chip shortages impact on imis businesseveryone was hit by the chip shortage and its now affecting the entire supply chain including nonautomotive demand went down significantly because of the lockdowns globally which happened in different cycles suppliers didnt turn on all the capacity because there was no demandduring the lockdown demand through ecommerce came in we lost the services industry nobody was flying nor going to hotels but people have money so where do you spend it its either food or goods as people work from home you need a new computer a new pc display cameras routers etcwhat did that shift in consumer spending do to chip demandthe capacity of chip suppliers was channeled to that new demand because no one was buying cars nor riding planes then it started to normalize the demand cycle came back as some economies reopen you can now go out but no one wants to ride the train nor the bus because of fear of getting the virus now you want to buy a car advt suppliers are now saying what i ordered before i want to order again but chip manufacturers are saying wait ive transferred the capacity to computers routers goods and sanitation like uv lightwhen do you see the shortage easingwhen the load returned for auto and industrials the other side didnt diminish and therefore we now have what we call the perfect storm that in spite of demand coming from auto they cant switch the capacity back until you add more capacitybut adding capacity on the chip side is not instantaneous the equipment manufacturer setting it up the technology and everything it takes about a year or probably more depending on the type of chip youre looking for and that will also depend on lockdowns exactly for example malaysia was hit it has several fabs running once they stop thats capacity taken out on a global basis in countries where were at