Ever since supply chain shortages hit many industries, particularly in relation to the availability of integrated circuits or chips, there has been a massive scramble to increase capacity and to build new chip fabricating facilities (fabs) or factories. There has been a series of announcements from huge companies like Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Samsung, and others launching massive multi-billion projects to add more chip production facilities.
There’s just one problem…the equipment they need to build these facilities are themselves delayed.
See more on the supply chain shortages delaying new factories to help the supply chain
The plan went something like this – the first step to try and address the chip shortage was to add production lines within existing facilities that had space for expansion. The second step was to launch massive projects to build more production facilities around the country…and around the world.
New Chip Fabs Take 3 Years to Construct
Building an all-new facility from the ground up typically takes three years to accomplish. However, in the step one scenario above, some time can be saved by utilizing available space in existing facilities and adding new production lines.
With chip demand still at all-time highs, nothing could be more important than building additional production capability so that more chips can be manufactured. Massive industries like electronics and automobiles have seen their revenues crushed and operations thrown into disarray as products were delayed – or even canceled – as a result of the chip shortage.