Microchip’s ‘Unsupported Backlog’ Grew for 5th Straight Quarter: CEO

Demand far outpaced the capacity improvements and increased shipments Microchip Technology achieved in fiscal Q2 ended Sept. 30, said CEO Ganesh Moorthy on a Thursday call. The company supplies embedded control solutions and other components to five commercial segments, including LED backlight drivers for consumer, automotive and industrial displays. Its “unsupported backlog” of orders Microchip was unable to fill “continued to climb significantly” from fiscal Q1, he said. It was the fifth straight quarter in which “our unsupported backlog for product requested in a given quarter has grown,” despite quarterly revenue having grown 26% year over year, he said. “We continue to experience constraints in all of our internal and external factories and their related manufacturing supply chains.” Microchip faces “a challenging environment for our factories and our partners' factories to hire, train, and retain employees to support the planned manufacturing ramps,” said the CEO. “Despite all this, through all the actions we have taken to increase capacity, we expect we will be in a position to support revenue growth for at least each of the next four quarters.” But the supply constraints are expected to “persist through much of 2022 and possibly beyond that,” he said.