Nokia CEO Says ‘Fight’ for Semiconductors May Drag On Until 2023

Kati Pohjanpalo (Bloomberg) -- The global shortage of semiconductors that’s plaguing automakers, data center owners and electronics manufacturers has turned into a “fight” that risks dragging on until 2023, according to the chief executive of Nokia Oyj.

“There’s a fight going on. The shortage in general in the market could continue a year or even two,” Pekka Lundmark said in an interview on Thursday. “This is not going to go away anytime soon.”

Network equipment makers like Nokia and Ericsson AB are big consumers of semiconductors and the shortages have stirred concern of a delay to their multi-billion dollar rollout of fifth-generation mobile networks.

That would complicate Lundmark’s efforts to get Nokia back in the 5G game after an early stumble that handed an advantage to Ericsson.

Companies from Apple Inc. to Samsung Electronics Co. and Honda Motor Co. have flagged the chip supply shortage. Nokia management is spending growing amounts of time trying to address the problem, though the impact on the company’s operations is “not material” for now, said Lundmark.

“You have to be in daily contact with your suppliers, make sure you are important to them,” he said later in an interview with Anna Edwards on Bloomberg TV. “It is things like how important you are in the big picture, how strong your relationships are and how you manage expectations.”

Ericsson said last week the scant supply has not yet impacted deliveries to customers.