Although the situation in Japan still changes hourly, a clearer picture is emerging on the disaster’s impact on the car electronics industry.
Almost all suppliers work on 4 month lead times, and the recent disruption to production of some high end chipsets produced in Japan, is expected to result in some 12 volt product shortages in late July and August.
Car radios, car video and some OEM integration products and amplifiers could see spot shortages, suppliers said.
Even car audio products supplied by non-Japanese brands may also be impacted. They still may uses chip sets from Japan, although two suppliers noted that they can find the parts elsewhere.
To understand the problem, Japan is rationing electricity. There are rolling blackouts and some factories only have electricity for half the day.
One supplier said that goods may be held up in ports because inspectors may be required to check products coming out of Asia for radiation.
“Shortages of fuel and raw materials and ruptured logistics,” are also hampering Japanese factories, said Reuters, Friday.
At the same time, much can change between now and the summer.
And retailers should be less impacted by shortages than individual suppliers. There is a hyper supply of car radios in general.
DICE Electronics’ Steve Witt, who worked at Alpine for 25 years, speaking on industry shortages overall said, “There’s no real need at this point to panic about a serious interruption of supply. Yes, there will probably be some interruptions but the Japanese are very clever and they have a lot of resources.” He said he’s seen many disruptions in product cycles that were ultimately corrected before there was a problem.
Another supplier said, “I think the retailers will continue to do well. There will still be plenty of product. There’s an oversupply of in-dash electronics [in general]. The dealers are still going to have a lot of options.”
Source: CEoutlook
Photo of car stereo factory
