More than a year after its outbreak, the coronavirus keeps finding new ways to hit automakers.

在首先消除汽车需求之后, the virus is now hindering parts supply: chips used in vehicles are harder to come by because semiconductor manufacturers allocated more capacity to meet soaring demand from consumer-electronics makers such as Apple Inc.

短缺可能会持续下去, with lockdowns and travel restrictions prompting housebound consumers to snap up more phones, 游戏机, 智能电视和笔记本电脑上网. 对芯片制造商的重要性降低, auto manufacturers risk not getting enough goods to fuel a fledgling recovery in their own industry.

丰田汽车公司. partially halted production in China Monday before resuming Tuesday while Honda Motor Co. is reducing output at five factories across North America as it becomes harder to procure chips.

本田，它不得不这么做 缩减其在美国的产出.K. 上周工厂, 表示将减少雅阁的生产, 思域和Insight轿车, 以及奥德赛小型货车和讴歌RDX跨界车. 这家日本汽车制造商也将减产约4%,在国内一家工厂生产了1000辆汽车, 日产汽车公司. 正在调整Note掀背车的产量.

丰田是全球最大的汽车制造商. 2 automaker, said the impacted lines were at its factory in Guangzhou, in China’s south. The lines resumed production Tuesday after halting Monday, a spokeswoman said. 丰田与广州汽车集团有限公司共同运营该工厂. 丰田还降低了在德克萨斯州生产的一款皮卡的产量.

“客户无法生产，因为他们拿不到零件,“格伦·德·沃斯, 汽车零部件供应商Aptiv Plc首席技术官, 在一次采访中说. “We’ve avoided a situation where we’re shutting down customers, but we’ve been impacted.”

Semiconductor shortages may persist throughout the first half as chipmakers adjust their operations, 研究机构IHS Market去年12月预测说. 23. Automakers will start to see component supply gradually ease in the next two to three months, 中国乘用车协会, 哪个集团是这个国家最大的汽车制造商, 周一表示.

Chipmakers favor consumer-electronics customers because their orders are larger than those of automakers -- the annual smartphone market alone is more than 1 billion devices, 相比之下，中国的汽车数量不到1亿辆. 汽车制造也是一个利润率较低的行业, leaving manufacturers unwilling to bid up chip prices as they avoid risking their profitability.

And while the newest cars require more chips, so do the latest consumer gadgets. Smartphones using so-called 5G connectivity require 40 percent more semiconductors than older 4G versions. 芯片代工厂台湾半导体制造有限公司. 上周公布了创纪录的第四季度营收, 新的5G iphone占用了很大一部分容量.

The auto-chip shortage stems from overly conservative demand estimates made early last year as car plants closed to cope with the onset of the pandemic, 德沃斯说. 一旦植物重新开放, vehicle sales rebounded more strongly than anticipated after governments unleashed stimulus packages and commuters avoided public transport.

At the same time, foundries such as TSMC, United Microelectronics Corp. 和Globalfoundries公司. 以及日月光科技(ASE Technology Holding Co .)等芯片组装商. weren’t expanding fast enough to meet the pandemic-induced spike in demand for consumer gadgets. 这些瓶颈不仅阻碍了芯片流向汽车, 还有xbox和playstation，甚至某些iphone.

The foundries are responsible for making a significant portion of the world’s semiconductors and serve 汽车-chip companies such as NXP Semiconductors NV, 英飞凌科技公司和瑞萨电子公司.

The Trump administration’s move to blacklist China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. in December drove customers to seek alternatives and further constrained the global chip supply. Some semiconductor buyers have also been building up inventories to hedge against future shortages or disruptions.

“这需要一些时间，”德沃斯说，“但我们正在走出困境.”

Auto-chip companies cut orders with Taiwanese foundries significantly in the first half of 2020 and when they wanted the capacity back in the second half, 合同芯片制造商已将其分配给其他人, 一位知情人士说.

General Motors has asked for the Taiwanese government’s help to secure chip supply, and Taiwanese officials have helped to relay the request to foundries including TSMC, 据这个人说. The European Union has also approached Taiwanese officials about the same issue, the person said.

There’s no guarantee such requests will yield results -- smartphone and gadget customers contribute more to foundries’ revenue and profit and are willing to shell out more.

“Consumer-electronics companies are ready to pay more for chips to ensure their gadgets will get to market on time,杰夫·普说, 广发证券的分析师. “汽车制造商不太愿意这么做.”

与此同时，增加半导体供应并非易事. Chipmakers need to spend years and billions of dollars to build fabrication plants capable of cranking out silicon for a wide range of products. They tend to err on the side of conservative planning because of the risks involved -- and the enormous potential losses.

At least one major 汽车 chip supplier is having a significant volume of its orders turned away by TSMC because of lack of capacity, 据一位知情人士透露. There are no signs of the situation getting easier for carmakers, the person said. 台积电发言人拒绝置评, saying the company will discuss 汽车 chips at its investor conference on Thursday.

Such setbacks have left some carmakers with no option but to cut production.

大众上月表示，将不得不改变生产计划. 菲亚特克莱斯勒汽车公司 暂时关闭加拿大的一家工厂 and delaying the restart of output at a Mexican Jeep factory until the end of January.

“The global semiconductor shortage is presenting challenges and production disruptions,福特汽车公司. 在一封电子邮件声明中说. 这家汽车制造商正在努力优先考虑关键的汽车生产线, “充分利用我们的半导体配置.“在北美， 福特在肯塔基州的一家工厂正处于闲置状态.

Carmakers’ predicament is exacerbated by the fact that chips are crucial for the latest features they are touting, 无论是辅助驾驶, 大显示器或连接性. Semiconductor-based components are set to account for more than 50 percent of a car’s 制造业 cost by 2030, 而现在是35%, 根据中国EV 100和罗兰贝格的一份报告.

“Chips are getting more important for the upcoming software-defined cars,史记说, 海通国际证券有限公司的分析师. 在香港. “它们对所有汽车都是必不可少的，而不仅仅是电动汽车.”