SPA warns on ongoing chip shortages throughout 2023

Analysis from the Smart Payment Association (SPA) confirms that the global semiconductor (chip) shortage will continue throughout 2023, severely impacting the delivery of payment cards worldwide.

This ongoing supply challenge results from a range of factors including post-COVID recovery leading to a surge in demand of semiconductors.

Additionally, payment card deliveries are suffering from extended lead times for key raw material supplies such as plastic, metal and other components of a smart card. This is due to various factors including recent COVID-related factory shutdowns in China, and global supply chain disruptions created by materials shortages and freight capacities still not at the pre-COVID level.

While these factors continue to exert pressures, the payment card manufacturers in the SPA1 do their utmost, together with their respective customers, to design and implement card supply risk mitigation strategies. These include robust inventory management, optimizing utilization of all available products and stock levels, greater forecast accuracy, and ever-closer collaboration with respective suppliers to reduce impact.