Since the second half of 2020, chip shortage has been a major theme in the semiconductor industry. An increasing number of people working and studying at home during the epidemic had led to an increase in market demand for various types of semiconductor products such as microchips used in smartphones and computers.

Chipmakers have taken measures to cope with the situation. Reportedly, Japanese chipmaker Sumitomo Electric will produce semiconductors for 5G base stations in the United States from September this year to supply the subsidiaries of communication equipment makers such as Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia in the United States and Europe.

Sumitomo Electric intends to do so because a global chip shortage could cause supply chain disruption problems in the West and the company wants to increase the supply capacity of its U.S. operations by 100 percent.