Orbit one: "High demand complicates the situation"

“The component market is still facing a tough situa­tion, and at present there are no immediate signs that things are about to improve. Furthermore, there is still very high demand for components, and manufactur­ers are quite simply unable to produce components at a sufficient rate to meet current needs”, says Marcus Gunnebrant, in a press release.

Gunnebrant says that the company's forecasts are being pushed forward month by month, and that he believe that we will see a continuation of these problems into the first half of 2023, at least. 

"In­vestments are being made in new production capaci­ty, but these are yet to produce any visible results,” the Chief Supply Chain Officer says.

The pandemic also continues to impact the market, in particular in China where – as previously reported by Evertiq – production units and cities are peri­odically being shut down and going in to lockdown, which further delays deliveries.

“This in turn is creating backlogs of deliveries that must be shipped out of China and then reloaded in Europe for further distribution. The war in the Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia are also creating problems when it comes to land-based shipments through Russia,” Gunnebrant continues.

“In addition, prices continue to rise with regard to the cost of production, shipping and raw materials. Our advice to all our customers is therefore unchanged – they should carefully review their needs and neither underestimate nor overestimate their purchasing requirements. Ideally, we would like to receive esti­mates of customers’ component requirements for the next eighteen months to 2 years.”

Gunnebrant concludes his update with a warning to others; be wary of rogue operators on the Internet who promise good prices and quick deliveries.