Broadcom Inc., a chipmaker that supplies crucial components for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, told customers that disruptions to the global supply chain caused by the Covid-19 pandemic means they’ll need to place orders for parts six months ahead of time.
Lockdowns in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines are “closing or severely restricting business operations,” according to a letter to customers from Nilesh Mistry, Broadcom’s vice president of sales, dated April 13 and seen by Bloomberg. “Air and sea transport options have become unreliable and become more expensive and have increased delays,” Mistry wrote. The San Jose, California-based company declined to comment.
Broadcom is a critical part of the supply chain for products ranging from mobile phones to data-center hardware. Any delays in the delivery of its semiconductors could spread throughout that supply network, potentially leading to missed launches of some of the world’s most high-profile and widely used electronic devices.
Wireless customers include Apple andSamsung Electronics Co., which use Broadcom chips to add Wi-Fi and other connectivity to some of the world’s best-selling smartphones. In networking, its switch chips are the market leaders, going into machinery that’s used by all of the biggest equipment makers, including Cisco Systems Inc. andHuawei Technologies Co., and companies such as Amazon.com Inc. that build their own gear.
The chipmaker’s letter to customers didn’t specify which products are experiencing delayed shipments and what the normal lead time is between orders and delivery, compared with the 26 weeks specified in the letter.
“We hope that as the global community finds better methods to address the Covid-19 pandemic, the conditions will abate and we will be able to resume our normal operations,” Mistry said in the letter.
Broadcom is part of the same supply chain that most of the world’s chipmakers use to outsource production, testing and packaging of their products. Products from companies such asQualcomm Inc., Nvidia Corp. andAdvanced Micro Devices Inc. are built mostly byTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., then tested and packaged by other companies in China and Southeast Asia. Some companies perform elements of the process in-house, and a shrinking group are capable of doing all the steps themselves.
On March 12, Broadcomwithdrew its annual sales forecast and gave weak near-term guidance, citing the impact of the pandemic. Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan told investors that, while fundamental demand was still strong and he hadn’t see any negative impact in the first quarter of the year, “visibility was lacking.”
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