Chip deliveries to Europe delayed as Iran war hits air freight

European companies that import semiconductors from Asia are tapping into backup stores and paying more for deliveries as the Iran war causes disruption to air freight routes through the Middle East, industry insiders have told CNBC.

The Iran war has caused turmoil to cargo routes as shipping and airports have been targeted since the war began on Feb. 28. Global air freight capacity — which transports cargo such as semiconductors and other high-value electronics — is down around 9% compared to pre-war levels, according to data from logistics firm DSV.

That’s led to rising costs for European companies importing semiconductors from Asia and delivery delays, as well as some manufacturers importing fewer chips from the region because of those capacity constraints.

Chips are a crucial component of all electronics. Companies from industrial giants and data centers to carmakers import certain chips from locations like China and Taiwan.

“What you’ll see in the next weeks is that inventory levels are trending down with the hope that [logistics costs] will normalize,” Stefan Krikken, DSV’s head of air freight, told CNBC, pointing to European automakers, which use semiconductors for a range of electronic systems on board vehicles.

Other European companies were absorbing the increased air freight costs of chip imports, said Krikken. He added that DSV hadn’t seen a “significant” drop in chip imports overall yet as a result of the conflict, but many buyers were paying premium costs to ensure continued delivery.

One European chip company had experienced delays of a few days on some semiconductor deliveries, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told CNBC, who asked for anonymity discussing private business matters. Costs of air freight had risen, the source said, adding that the company didn’t have visibility on whether prices would come down again in the coming months.

Iranian attacks on infrastructure, including airports in the Middle East, have seen global air freight capacity take a hit. Many cargo planes flying from Asia to Europe would previously travel through airspace in the Middle East or stop to refuel at hubs in the region. 

That means that more carriers are flying direct and having to cut the amount of cargo they’re holding to make room for extra fuel, which can mean a cut to payload, Krikken said. Jet fuel makes up 50% of airline operating costs, Krikken said, and that is surging in price as the cost of oil spikes.

As a result, buyers looking to import goods from Asia to Europe are having to pay premium costs for delivery. 

While air freight shipments for semiconductors have continued for German automotive supplier ZF, it’s paying more to maintain supply chains, a spokesperson told CNBC.

While those importing higher value products, including the most advanced chips and other tech products, are absorbing those costs, companies buying lower value commodities are more likely to dip into inventory stores in the hopes that the cost of shipping by air will fall in the near future, said Krikken.

“Within tech, there’s a very broad spectrum, right from chips that are worth pennies compared to high-end chips and data racks that are worth millions of dollars,” he told CNBC. “So the lower the value, the higher the impact.”

Some European chip foundry companies, automotive original manufacturers and contract manufacturers have experienced delays in deliveries of semiconductors, Razat Gaurav, CEO at supply chain software platform Kinaxis, told CNBC.

Many customers buying these chips have inventories that can be anywhere from a week to months-long, depending on the business, he added. 

Supply chains and inventory stocks have been bolstered since a Covid-induced chip shortage.

“A lot of the shippers adjusted their supply chains so they keep higher inventory levels” post-Covid, said Krikken, adding many companies moved to diversify the providers of these chips.

“We currently do not see any impact on our production,” a Volkswagen spokesperson told CNBC, adding that the company is “closely monitoring” its supply chain and at present sees no indication of bottlenecks.

Companies are “actively stress-testing semiconductor flows as disruptions to critical routes like the Strait of Hormuz and the airport in Dubai ripple through global supply chains,” Gaurav said. 

“What shows up [are] fare disruptions in flows from Asia to the Middle East and Europe, depleting levels of buffer inventory and increased logistics costs as organizations evaluate supplier exposure, reroute shipments and rebalance inventory in real time.”