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Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

reuters.com

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Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#421

Post by FartyMcFarter »

practice9 wrote: post #297
mnholt wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they aren't going to "ping pong" themselves into a parked emergency vehicle.

Right, because it will just turn off itself randomly and run full speed into vehicle ahead. Even Tesla's basic autopilot is far ahead of competitors and it's already included in base price. Many companies will rip you off for far more basic cruise control

> Even Tesla's basic autopilot is far ahead of competitors

Depends on how you define "competitors" I guess. It doesn't seem to be ahead of Waymo.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#422

Post by hef19898 »

Kliment wrote: post #412
hef19898 wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure 9 months payment terms are illegal in the EU, everything above 90 days is an issue already. Not defending the supplier squezzing that auto OEMs conduct. Also, trucks aren't circling around facilities, they are waiting at parking lots. Seriously, I don't know what kind of axe you have to grind with automotive and JIT. It does seem to be a larger issue if it is affecting all industries, and all companies. C…

I've spoken to suppliers who had 9 month payment terms to automotive (and other transport, train manufacturers are just as bad) customers. The law change in the EU was triggered by exactly such excessive contract terms. They're still common in other areas where regulators have not yet stepped in. I know the area where the factory in TFA is based, and I can tell you they don't have nearly enough parking space for deli…

Did automotive start it, or was automotive just hit first? I don't know, and I think might take a while until we know. I have to agree that 9 months payment terms are unacceptable. That truck yards at warehouses and factories are full has more to do with bad yard management, or non at all. That is less a problem with JIT or procurement, instead it is a purely operational issue.

That us in SCM and logistics, incl. procurement, have tendency to push issues down to lower tiers is true. it is also true that logistics and transportation is offloading a lot on public infrastructure. Does it have to be that way? On the one hand, yes. Roads are public, railway lines more often that not as well (to an extent that is). That's what taxes are there for, because indirectly everyone if profiting from a running economy. Again, that is less the case in developing countries and should change. I also agree, and that is maybe even more important when it come to the environment at large, SCM should prioritize environmental and climate protection more, along with social standards. That won't happen so until it is financially beneficial to do so. This is a general issue with capitalism running rampant so. Chemical plants giving a shit about worker health and safety or the environment is as old as chemical manufacturing., just as an example.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#423

Post by gnopgnip »

caeril wrote: post #21

What I'll never understand is why carmakers don't take advantage of this situation and address a market that's been literally BEGGING for decades for a new product: A simple, basic car, with the ONLY electronic control being for: - Valve timing - Fuel injection - Oxygen and throttle - Emissions There's a market for budget and privacy oriented customers that all carmakers seem to have ignored for two decades now. Give…

Some side by sides or UTVs are pretty close to what you are asking for. As these vehicles are not universally road legal they don't have many requirements, it is really up to the market. Many are under $10k and have relatively few electronics. Some of them can be operated on public roads at lower speeds. And when you are no longer designing a vehicle for 70-90+ speeds you can make a lot of other changes, engine 1/4 the size, lighter wheels, brakes, frame while still being able to tow as much as a mid size suv.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#424

Post by realityking »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #275
cedilla wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps we shouldn't. The EU estimates that half the fatalities on the road will be prevented with these systems. That's 10.000 lives each year. If that's true, increasing the cost marginally is more than worth it (and it really is marginally, budget cars have not noticably increased in price).

They probably estimated from behind a desk to justify some activity, not by research. Over 90% of the fatalities on the road in my country, that has the highest numbers in EU, come from excessive speed and ignoring road laws, something no current safety systems can change. Even airbags are completely useless in a front collision at 150km/h.

Good news, the EU realizes that as well. Starting May 2022 all new cars sold in the EU need to support Intelligent Speed Adaptation: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/european-union-speed-limi...

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#425

Post by chii »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #357
pitaj wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laws prohibiting "scalping" or "price gouging" in emergencies often makes problems worse by incentivizing hoarding and disincentivizing more suppliers from entering the market.

Price gouging laws target the products with most serious risk of shortages and guarantee shortages. I think back to the gas pipeline shutdown earlier this year, and how simply that could have been a non-issue if stations had been allowed to raise prices.

The problem is one of optics - if life-essentials were allowed to be price-gouged, the local gov't officials get blamed for not instituting price control during the period of shortage. Even if the shortage would've been worse had there been price control!

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#426

Post by chii »

King-Aaron wrote: post #392
bluecalm wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's your solution? If there is limited number of 3090 GPUs should they be allocated to those who order them first? By random? Auction? Scalpers at least ensure you can get it of you really need it (that is willing to pay a lot).

I don't have a solution nor do I think I need to offer one, I just think that people who engage in (and sympathise with) scalping are grubby people.

It's not illegal to be an asshole. At least scalpers reveal the true cost of the product.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#427

Post by Retric »

roenxi wrote: post #398
Retric wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your right concerts make it hard to tell why seats are empty however unsold inventory is part of the basic business model of reserving a section of supply at higher prices not simply a mistake. Airline seats are a better comparison. Airlines keep raising prices as inventory gets sold and flights near. However, that approach means they generally fly with significant unused excess capacity. The reverse approach where p…

That needs to be sourced from somewhere; the classic understanding of airlines is they usually overbook [0] and rely on people not turning up. In fact, the whole "lets not sell our inventory, we'll make higher profits!" idea here is suspect. The idea that having unsold inventory in the model is a good idea is just false; having inventory left over is always undesirable. If it was sold at the last minute then they wou…

It isn’t a question of what happens on specific flights, it’s a question of what happens generally. Global load factors are ~85% which is a long way from constantly overbooked.

Pre pandemic to get a normal picture: https://www.airlineratings.com/news/packed-planes-new-normal...

Low cost US carriers have a load factor of 90% that’s a trade off between fixed aircraft size and variable demand. However, US carriers only average a load factor of 86.5% meaning legacy carriers like American Airlines have a below 86.5% capacity factor and that difference between 90% and ~85% is exactly the optimization I am talking about.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#428

Post by Retric »

lmm wrote: post #364
Retric wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The scalper isn’t going to buy something they can’t sell on That assumes they have perfect information which they don’t they can only estimate demand. It’s perfectly rational for a scalper to regularly purchase more tickets than they sell due to the kind of markup their looking for. At say 4x they could on average sell 1/2 the tickets while doubling their investment. And of course that assumes they never run into l…

> It’s perfectly rational for a scalper to regularly purchase more tickets than they sell due to the kind of markup their looking for. At say 4x they could on average sell 1/2 the tickets while doubling their investment. True, but in that case they've added more value than they've subtracted. That artists insist on pricing every concert to sell out is a big part of the problem here; you'd get a more functional market…

Bands want to present the appearance of a successful band, it helps their image. A filled stadium is part of that, so yes they can make more money today by raising prices but that’s making real trade offs.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#430

Post by lvl100 »

mendigou wrote: post #337
lvl100 wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true at all. How many chips do you think the car industry needs for car parts? How many cars do you think they sell in a year? It’s not hard to figure it out. People parroting this narrative have no idea what’s happening behind the scene.

Most of us affected think it's very true. There are 60-70 million cars sold worldwide each year and many chips of different kinds in each. If you have some deeper insight it'd be great to share it.

What we are seeing is basically hoarding across the board and pandemic-induced manufacturing disruptions. And suppliers are going along with it because they make substantially more profit in this situation. This notion that car manufacturers are responsible for halting the entire world for chips is simply a narrative to hide what’s really happening. Even if car mfgs cut production due to pandemic miscalculations, that’s at best 5-10%. That alone is not enough to shut down factories. And we are more than one full cycle out of the pandemic. We are still talking about a supply chain that was state of the art. If you think they didn’t adjust (to some 10M unit miscalculation) by now, I don’t think you should be writing articles on this topic.
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