How China became ground zero for auto chip shortage TAIPEI|SHANGHAI|SINGAPORE : From his small office in Singapore, Kelvin Pang is ready to wager a US$23 million (RM102.4 million) payday that the worst of the chip shortage is not over for automakers – at least in China. Pang has bought 62,000 microcontrollers, chips that help control a range of functions from car engines and transmissions to electric vehicle power systems and charging, which cost the original buyer US$23.80 each in Germany. He’s now looking to sell them to auto suppliers in the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen for US$375 apiece. He says he has turned down offers for US$100 each, or US$6.2 million for the whole bundle, which is small enough to fit in the back seat of a car and is packed for now in a warehouse in Hong Kong. “The automakers have to eat,“ Pang told Reuters. “We can afford to wait.” The 58-year-old, who declined to say what he himself had paid for the microcontrollers (MCU), makes a living trading excess electronics inventory that would otherwise be scrapped, connecting buyers in China with sellers abroad.