Fortune - "The Shenzhen lockdown will affect everything from cars to iPhones: ‘It’s going to be really bad’"

[Zoidz]

Fortune

There will still be naysayers who imsist that Rivian is making up the supply chain delays......

"Whether its iPhones, cars or electronics, locking down Shenzhen, and the subsequent effect on the Yantian port—the fourth largest in the world—will cause shipping delays across a wide range of products and continue to harm supply chains that have experienced issues since the pandemic began."

"Shenzhen’s lockdown has the potential to halt exports of car components that could subsequently fracture the whole manufacturing process.

Chinese electric vehicle and battery cell maker BYD is reportedly experiencing production issues at its Shenzhen factory as a result of lockdowns, according to Bloomberg.


In January, when the Chinese city of Tianjin was placed on semi-lockdown, Toyota and Volkswagen factories within the city suspended operations, causing delays. And last week, when the Chinese province of Jilin was shut down, both companies had to again suspend operations at several plants within the province.


Car manufacturing is one of the most vulnerable industries to supply chain issues caused by lockdowns because “car components are quite time sensitive and of high value,” Bo Zhuang, an economist at Loomis Sayles, an investment management firm, told Fortune at the time."

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[kanundrum]

Yup. Lets see whats going to happen in up coming months.

 

[Taycanfrank]

Has any non-troll ever said Rivian was making it up?? That seems to be the way people are twisting it when people say Rivian has been poor at planning for, and communicating, delays.

RJ said in the call that they expect delays to clear up by Q4 2022. As you point out, that was an outlandish projection and delays are likely only getting worse for the remainder of the year.

 

[COdogman]

The chip shortage and the pandemic in general have just made it hell to make or buy anything for the past 2 years. We ordered 33 Ubiquiti security cameras for our new building and it took 6 months for them to arrive. Same issue with cleaning equipment and power tools. Between the labor shortages and the parts shortages it is totally understandable to me why it’s hard to make a bunch of R1s. Rivian definitely could have done better to explain it as it wa happening though…

 

[Zoidz]

The chip shortage and the pandemic in general have just made it hell to make or buy anything for the past 2 years. We ordered 33 Ubiquiti security cameras for our new building and it took 6 months for them to arrive. Same issue with cleaning equipment and power tools. Between the labor shortages and the parts shortages it is totally understandable to me why it’s hard to make a bunch of R1s. Rivian definitely could have done better to explain it as it wa happening though…

Ubuiquiti seems especially hard hit. My company has had their industrial access points on backorder for months.

 

[COdogman]

Ubuiquiti seems especially hard hit. My company has had their industrial access points on backorder for months.

They do make good stuff. Ironically when we ordered the access points were the only things actually in stock. I will say they did a good job communicating with us about the status of our order. In fact they told us it might be 9 months so we were thrilled when it showed up *early*. See how that works, Rivian?

 

[iansriv]

I hope the last two years have taught us to either start manufacturing critical things in the US or disburse the sourcing to different countries so we avoid crisis such as the great toilet paper shortage of 2020!

 

[crashmtb]

the great toilet paper shortage of 2020!

not really a thing! There was lots of toilet paper, people were just buying it so fast that retailers couldn’t keep up

 

[SeaGeo]

Try buying a BLE OBD reader right now...

ABRP adding native OBD integration seems to have chewed up the stock across manufacturers. ABRP. Almost the nerdiest of nerdy EV apps. Lol.

 

[DuckTruck]

I hope the last two years have taught us to either start manufacturing critical things in the US or disburse the sourcing to different countries so we avoid crisis such as the great toilet paper shortage of 2020!

Speaking of which, I was lucky enough to have the foresight to avoid the TP shortage by grabbing a 72-pack every time I hit Costco for a couple of months. Luckily, as a single man, I still have 8,422 rolls left, per my CDO Inventory. I store them in what was previously known as my "Guest Bedroom". Fortunately, it also serves as a pantry for my 17 twelve-packs of Spam, which nicely fit in the Armoire. I'm not sure I'll get through all that Spam before its "Best by" date of 4/20/2525, but since no one can visit, I just might.

Pray for me. ?

 

[Gator42]

Locking down again? My spidey-sense is telling me something’s up…

 

[timf]

Locking down again? My spidey-sense is telling me something’s up…

China refuses to give up on it's Zero-COVID policy while the rest of the world has moved on.

 

[mwexler2]

not really a thing! There was lots of toilet paper, people were just buying it so fast that retailers couldn’t keep up

That plus there was a switch industrial toilet paper to home toilet paper. Everything from the manufacturer to the distributors to the retailers are different. All those empty offices had plenty of toilet paper. But that one didn’t have to do with single sourcing or overseas sources to anywhere near the extent that chips and auto parts have suffered.

 

[iansriv]

not really a thing! There was lots of toilet paper, people were just buying it so fast that retailers couldn’t keep up

Au contraire mon frere! Perhaps Canadian bottoms were not subjected to the lack of said toilet paper but we were shaken to our core, or at least our bums! I'm just making a funny point on a serious issue of the supply chain. We seem to get upset with a disruption of TP or furniture or even cars; but miss the fact that the current supply chain can have much more serious impacts.

 

[Sdvictor]

Try buying a BLE OBD reader right now...

ABRP adding native OBD integration seems to have chewed up the stock across manufacturers. ABRP. Almost the nerdiest of nerdy EV apps. Lol.

Speaking of which, does the Rivian R1 have an OBD port (since it doesn't have a combustion engine and emissions control technology, BEVs don't technically require an OBD) that can be used by ABRP? It'd be good to see if anyone has tried.

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