Japan’s Rohm Co. -- which supplies Ford, Toyota and Honda -- says it has been hampered by a severe shortage of key materials.

The gap between putting in a semiconductor order and taking delivery rose for the ninth month in a row to an average of 21.7 weeks in September, Bloomberg reported.

Huge investments are going into U.S. EV battery production capacity. But that will require upstream parts and materials that are not common to the North American industry.

Two years of disruptions caused by the pandemic, the microchip shortage and a wide range of supply chain challenges are prompting automakers and suppliers to pursue a better sense of where their parts are.