Toshiba expects chip supply challenges to continue for another year as chronic shortages of these components persist, coinciding with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a major supplier of chip-making materials, which will also have an impact.

“The sense of shortage has not changed at all,” said Hiroyuki Sato, Head of Hardware Unit at Toshiba. “We expect the limited supply for now to continue until March next year at the earliest.

Ukraine is a major supplier of purified rare gases such as neon and krypton, both essential to making semiconductors, as it produces nearly 70 percent of the world’s total neon, according to data from research firm TrendForce. Although some chip makers have played down the impact of disruption from the war, it is clearly not a positive, according to Sato.