SAN JOSE -- EMS manufacturers are beginning to feel the downside of the increase in business: component shortages.

Flextronics, the world's second-largest EMS company, said shortages are broad-based and are affecting shipments. 

On a conference call yesterday, Flextronics CEO Michael McNamara said, "We are certainly seeing more component shortages. We actually could have shipped more revenue last quarter had we not had any and the component shortages really are not just in mobile but they are somewhat across the board. We are chasing quite a few parts in quite a few different product categories right now. And in general, what we're seeing is that there is a little bit of a business expansion out there and the flexibility in the component supply base is just not there.

"A lot of the semiconductor fabs are running at pretty high utilization levels. There are some challenges in getting people in some of the low-cost regions, particularly in China, to ramp that quickly. So we are actually chasing a lot of parts right now and expect that not to really take off until probably next quarter."

The problems are not restricted to a few parts types, he added. "It's not just one or two components; it is primarily a broad push out of quite a few lead times that we're seeing."

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