Auto makers have been hit by a shortage of semiconductors occasioned by two converging factors – failure to forecast a sudden resurgence in demand towards the end of 2020, and a boom in sales of CE (consumer electronic) devices such as tablets, laptops and gaming consoles throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. The two factors combined meant that semiconductor makers had reconfigured their facilities towards those CE devices, without leaving scope to ramp up manufacturing of dedicated automotive components quickly. That failure to forecast the uptick resulting from pent-up demand after sales had slumped early in the pandemic seems to be a collective one across the whole automotive sector, appearing to have hit all the big OEMs about equally. It also means…