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Serious shortages of automotive-related chips are prompting global carmakers to cut output.   © Illustration by Michael Tsang
Business Spotlight

Asia's chip crunch slams the brakes on carmakers' COVID recovery

Assembly lines halt as industry vies with consumer gadgets for semiconductors

ERI SUGIURA and CHENG TING-FANG, Nikkei staff writers | Taiwan

TOKYO/TAIPEI -- Recovering demand for cars should make this a great time to be selling to the automotive industry -- but for a Japanese executive at an affiliate of one of the country's biggest software developers, it is deeply frustrating.

The software he sells for cars is useless without computer chips to run it. And they are in an unprecedented shortage as a result of a surprise rebound in car sales coupled with a boom in sales of tech gadgets.

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