Enlarge image
Hardware store:
Companies are also currently fishing for coveted material in hypermarkets
Photo: DPA
If you don't have the time to wait months for a new car, there is only one alternative: order a particularly expensive new car model.
Since four out of five companies in the German auto industry suffer from a shortage of preliminary products such as electronic components, according to the Ifo Institute, most German carmakers have switched to a "premium first" strategy.
The components and chips that you still get from suppliers such as Infineon or Continental are preferably built into the high-margin premium models.
As a result, many customers wait months for their new cars and sales decline - but at the same time, profit margins for many car manufacturers are rising into the double-digit range.
Car customers wait a long time, car manufacturers make splendid earnings
BMW, for example, achieved a return of 13 percent in the first half of 2021 - although BMW CFO Nicolas Peter fears that it will not be able to produce up to 90,000 vehicles by the end of the year due to a shortage of materials. The rival Mercedes is just behind with a 12.8 percent return. The Swabians also assume that up to 150,000 fewer cars will be delivered by the end of the year than initially planned. The mass manufacturers Stellantis (Opel, Fiat, PSA) and Volkswagen should each have more than a million vehicles by the end of the year - and here, too, profit margins have increased significantly, in the case of Stellantis even in the double-digit range. A consequence of the shortage economy: while customers wait, manufacturers earn splendidly.
"Automobile manufacturers and their suppliers are currently particularly affected by the shortage of preliminary products," explains Oliver Falck, head of the Ifo Center for Industrial Economics.
The rate of affected companies is around 83 percent - the highest value in 30 years.
And suppliers are currently unable to ramp up their production accordingly due to corona-related compulsory breaks.
"The inventories are at an all-time low," says Infineon boss Reinhard Ploss, describing the situation.
"Delivery problems remain omnipresent. We are fighting for every additional wafer."
Ploss expects an improvement "not before the year 2022 at the earliest."
Electrical industry: Companies set up emergency warehouses
Companies from the electrical industry are also currently trying to manage the shortage of materials in the best possible way. With many individual items, there are always delays due to delivery bottlenecks: The order backlogs already reach up to four months into the future, says Andreas Gontermann, chief economist at the Central Association of the Electrical and Electronics Industry (ZVEI). The capacity utilization of the companies has risen to almost 90 percent, according to the ZVEI, the companies are working to the limit.
But the supply chains are not only disrupted by rising raw material prices and material shortages.
In view of the shortage, some companies are building up some stocks in order to be able to supply their most important customers in an emergency.
This hamster tactic is driving prices up further and increasing demand pressure.
The technology giant Siemens has also observed this effect: Siemens has found that some customers are building up warehouses to cushion the risks in the supply chains, said Siemens boss Roland Busch.
In addition, there would be continuously higher costs for raw materials, electronic components and freight - probably also in 2022. Another consequence of the shortage economy: Hamster purchases and high freight costs exacerbate the problem.
"Everything for house building is scarce and expensive"
Even in the trades, customers have to be prepared for longer waiting times and higher prices. "Not only wood is currently scarce and expensive, but everything you need to build or renovate a house," said Hans Peter Wollseifer, President of the German Press Agency. "There is also a lack of electronic parts for our electronics technicians and cables. That is making our companies difficult at the moment. "
According to the Ifo Institute, the material shortage in construction has recently eased slightly, but price increases are still on the horizon. In building construction, every second company surveyed is currently suffering from delivery delays. In civil engineering it is almost 34 percent. The deficiency is also noticeable in the costs, says Ifo researcher Felix Leiss. Every second building construction company is planning to increase prices by September. According to Leiss, a slight relaxation can be observed with wood, but many building materials remain scarce and expensive. "There is a lack of steel, insulation materials and other plastic products."
The problem affects not only companies, but also private end customers, who at times find themselves in front of empty shelves in the hardware store.
The Ifo reports that there are also many complaints about delivery problems in wholesaling.
In the case of wood and building materials, 74.4 percent of the dealers reported bottlenecks, and in the case of metal and plastic goods for building purposes, even nine out of ten of the dealers surveyed.
"That drives prices up," explains Ifo researcher Leiss.
Waiting for furniture - and board games
When chipboard or upholstery foam becomes a scarce and sought-after commodity, the furniture industry will also feel it. The hope of dealers and producers that they will be able to quickly refill empty warehouses after the first Corona year 2020 has not been fulfilled - also because of the sustained high demand since this spring, reports the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM). According to the industry association, every second furniture maker is currently still restricted in production due to a lack of material. Furniture makers, for example, compete with construction companies and packaging manufacturers for the basic material.
Customers even have to wait a few weeks for board games.
On the one hand, the demand for games has increased significantly in the corona pandemic.
At the same time, many factories cannot run at full capacity due to corona requirements, staff and raw materials shortages, said the game publisher Heidelbär Games.
On the other hand, there is still a shortage of containers in Asia, which means that there is a lack of empty containers for shipping the games produced.
The transport spaces on the ships are also rare.
Some of the not yet announced game innovations would therefore be postponed to 2022.
Garden tools: the grass grows, the customers wait
Summer 2021 is developing into a test of patience, and not just for car fans, do-it-yourselfers and home builders. Garden enthusiasts in Germany also feel the lack of small electrical appliances: Sometimes certain components for the robotic lawnmower are missing, sometimes the new chainsaw or hedge trimmer is simply stuck in a container in Asia and cannot be shipped. The demand for new devices has risen so sharply since autumn 2020 that neither the manufacturers of the devices nor the suppliers of various components have been able to keep up, according to the medium-sized motor device manufacturer Söllner GmbH, for example.
Particularly in the case of the popular cordless tools and robotic mowers, components are scarce and in individual cases lead to waiting times of several weeks, according to the industry.
Those who wait for a spare part sometimes have to be patient even longer, as manufacturers of new devices are often given priority.
Much is getting more expensive: Waiting time drives up prices
Much is currently regulated by the price. Those who are in a hurry pay more. The lack of material and the price increases in many durable consumer goods are having an impact on inflation, as have the prices for raw materials, which have been rising for months. The commodity price index of the Hamburg World Economic Institute (HWWI), for example, was 87 percent higher in July than in the previous year. The increases can be explained, among other things, by the weak economic performance and the lower price level in the first Corona year 2020, but some also point to supply bottlenecks.
Customers who want to while away the waiting time with a cup of coffee can feel the price surge while shopping.
Due to a cold spell and crop failures in Brazil, the roasters there already have to pay 80 percent more for raw coffee beans than at the turn of the year, reports the industry association Abic.
The prices for the varieties Arabica and Robusta are at a three-year high.
"Wait and see and drink tea" could be the way out here - but German consumers will probably have to stick to the principle of "wait longer, pay more" at least until the end of the year.
la / mg / with material from dpa-afx, Reuters and AFP
