If this isn’t a spoof then it’s a worry for the US economy
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Actually, I remember seeing an article on this recently. Those trucks are waiting for part(s) to come in from suppliers before going to dealerships. Basically, a supply chain issue. So, not an omen of poor sales or anything like that would raise economy concerns.
My wife’s brother ordered a new truck several months ago and he was told then not to expect delivery for at least a year. One of those trucks might be his.
Rich
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40,000 trucks waiting for chips. Over $2B in unsold inventory. You wonder how they are financed. Is this inventory on the books? Did Ford borrow the money? What interest rate do they pay?
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I’ve done a quick google. Apparently each truck needs well over 1,000 chips ranging from the simple to the very complicated. That’s a lot of chips!
It shows what would happen if there was a problem with Taiwan or China. The USA, and probably us in Europe, would come to a standstill.
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This is nothing compared to Boeing when the 737 max fiasco happend a few years back. They maintained production and had hundreds of 737’s parked in parking lots waiting for the flight ban to get lifted. Not sure if they’ve got all of them delivered now or not.
Closing a factory isn’t cheap either after adding back in the cost of restarting. If you layoff the workers, then they might not be around come re-open time.
Tough decision to have to make either way. Sortof damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Rich
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After I retired from an Automotive Electronics company in 2020, I attended a few others’ retirement parties. A continual topic of conversation was chip shortages. Engine Controls, Safety Systems, and other systems use many custom chips along with “mainstream” ICs. You only need to be missing one of dozens to be unable to make a particular electronics module. And you only need to be missing one of the many modules to be unable to sell a vehicle.
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This may not be the pile of overstock we were expecting.
But we are expecting a pile up of overstock.
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Its likely these chips are in subassemblies that get installed on the assembly line. Some may be commodity chips available form several suppliers. But many may be custom chips. Can they be transferred to other foundaries? Or must they wait for suppliers to fit them in the schedule.
Custom chips add complexity to “supply chain” issues.
Is this the shortage that you all are talking about?
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Badges? Ha!
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This is filler text to get over the 20 character text requirement.
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