As most people are probably aware, the price of new vehicles has increased by several thousand dollars this year. They say it's due to a chip shortage from China. I am skeptical. How does it taking a little longer to get a chip, increase the value of a vehicle by $10,000 to $15,000 dollars? I believe this chip shortage is false, in order to justify the price gouging. People should quit buying new vehicles for a year, to send the manufacturers a message. I have witnessed false shortages several times over the years, and they always result in immense price gouging. Usually sugar or coffee.
Gee, we were just talking about Just-in-Time manufacturing in another thread. There are reasons for having safety stock. And chips are sure easier to store than bumpers.
I don't think China produces many chips. They have stolen the technology and the designs from other nations, but don't have the quality control expertise to make the chips. I think Taiwan is the world's biggest chip supplier, and, should China take over Taiwan, they will be able to hold the rest of the world hostage including the U.S. military. We need chips from Taiwan and Japan to build our fancy weapons. A sad sign of the times. China does hold a near-monopoly of the rare earth metals used in the chips as the environmental lobby here won't allow exploration. I think Canada and Australia produce some, and Alaska has huge deposits but cannot develop them.