Feb. 23, 2023 /SemiMedia/ -- British medical equipment manufacturer Smith & Nephew said recently that although most of the chip shortage is easing, medical equipment manufacturers are still affected by the shortage of chips.

Smith & Nephew CEO Deepak Nath said that medical equipment makers have smaller order volumes than customers in many other industries, so chip makers have not prioritized chip supplies for the medical device industry. The supply of chips for the medical industry remains problematic.

"The chipsets for these systems have been selected and used for many years, and we can't just replace them because that means we have to go back and forth through regulatory approval," Deepak Nath said.

"In the whole of last year, the sales volume of sports or wound management systems could have been more, and the market demand was greater than our actual production capacity." He added.

The chip shortage means companies are facing very high prices when purchasing at spot buy prices compared to contract prices, Nath said.