EPCIA and ZVEI initiated passive components industry calls in nation to support passive components supply chain operations during COVID-19.
As government authorities craft public health measures to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, including mandatory business closures, we call on all governments to specify Passive Components Industry operations as “essential infrastructure” and/or “essential business” to allow continuity in operations of an industry that powers our global digital infrastructure, including -but not only -the medical devices industry and underpins vital sectors of the economy.
In response to the global coronavirus pandemic, the Passive Components Industry is focused on ensuring the health and safety of its workers and the continuity of its research, design, and manufacturing operations.
Passive components like Capacitors, EMC-Filter, Inductors, Resistors and Sensors are essential components of the technologies that control and enable essential infrastructure and life-critical equipment such as health care and medical devices, water treatment systems and the energy grid, transportation and communication networks.
There is no electronic device that works without Passive components!T ogether with Semiconductors, Passive components underpin the IT systems that enable remote or on-line work, education, and shopping for essential supplies, as well as access to services across every domain, including medicine, finance, education, government, food distribution and more.
Passive components and related supply chains will be necessary to support the greater range of services that will be digitized in the coming weeks and months in order to keep the global economy productive and to accelerate the recovery.
As the Passive components supply chain is highly integrated and globalized, Passive components shortages created by operating restrictions in one region cannot be readily made up by production in other regions. Such shortages lead to line-down situations at electronics factories downstream and have a ripple effect in our digital economy.
We therefore call on all governments at all levels –central, states/provinces, and localities – to prioritize continued operations for their domestic Passive components companies and their suppliers by defining the Passive Components Industry, its R&D and manufacturing operations and its supply chain as “essential infrastructure” and/or“essential business.”
The Passive Components Industry is committed to taking all necessary steps to ensure its essential workers remain healthy and safe and to use its critical technologies to assist in the effort to battle the global pandemic.
April 2020
EPCIA – European Passive Components Industry Association
ZVEI – German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers ́ Association