U.S. Commerce chief: ‘Aggressive’ action on chip shortage needed

WASHINGTON: U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Thursday it is time to get “aggressive” in addressing the worsening semiconductor chip shortage that has caused automakers and others to cut production and impacted thousands of U.S. workers.

“It’s time to get more aggressive. The situation is not getting better, in some ways it is getting worse,” Raimondo told Reuters in an interview. She said a voluntary request for information issued on chips to industry this week “will give us more information about the supply chain, and the goal is to increase transparency so we can try to identify where the bottlenecks (are) and then predict challenges.”

She warned if companies did not answer the voluntary request “then we have other tools in our tool box that require them to give us data. I hope we don’t get there. But if we have to we will.”