New York Times (August 25)
The Chinese “housing downturn has not delivered the devastating shock that the United States suffered in the 2008 financial crisis, but it has been hanging over the economy for five years with no end in sight.” Prices for new and secondhand homes continue to fall. “The continuing property market slide comes at a vulnerable moment for the Chinese economy. A trade war has limited China’s ability to rev up its export engine, while consumer spending remains soft. The government is plowing money into semiconductors, robotics and other technologies, but those investments are unlikely to pay off quickly enough to fill the hole left by a shrinking property sector.”
Tags: 2008 financial crisis, China, Consumer spending, Devastating, Downturn, Economy, Export engine, Home prices, Housing, Property market, Semiconductors, Trade war, U.S., Vulnerable
Market Watch (October 1)
“A tiny mining town in western North Carolina was among those battered by Hurricane Helene — and the damage could have serious implications for the massive tech-industry supply chain that relies on it.” Two mines in Spruce Pine account for about 80–90% of the “high-purity quartz used in semiconductor manufacturing.” Most foundries carry a several month inventory, but if repairs take longer it “could lead to supply-chain bottlenecks and temporary price increases on chips and electronics.”
Tags: Battered, Bottlenecks, Chips, Damage, Electronics, Foundries, Hurricane Helene, Implications, Inventory, Mining, North Carolina, Quartz, Repairs, Semiconductors, Serious, Supply chain, Tech industry
Wall Street Journal (July 7)
“China’s decision this week to restrict the export of two minerals used in semiconductors, solar panels and missile systems was more than a trade salvo. It was a reminder of its dominant hold over the world’s mineral resources—and a warning of its willingness to use them in its escalating rivalry with the U.S.”
Tags: China, Decision, Dominant, Escalating, Export, Mineral resources, Missile systems, Restrict, Rivalry, Semiconductors, Solar panels, Trade salvo, Warning
South China Morning Post (July 4)
“Beijing’s decision to impose export controls on critical raw materials used in manufacturing semiconductors, communication equipment and solar panels could complicate the US-led efforts to shift critical supply chains away from China.” Its latest move appears to seek “leverage in negotiations with Washington over access to core technology.”
Tags: China, Communication equipment, Core technology, Critical, Export controls, Impose, Leverage, Manufacturing, Negotiations, Raw materials, Semiconductors, Solar panels, Supply chains
Reuters (June 9)
“There is much excited chatter that automation will unleash a Fourth Industrial Revolution, building on earlier upheavals caused by the arrival of steam power, electricity, and semiconductors. Yet in Britain, which gave birth to the first of those transformations, economic growth has stalled.”
Tags: Automation, Chatter, Economic growth, Electricity, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Semiconductors, Stalled, Steam power, Transformations, UK, Unleash, Upheavals
New York Times (January 16)
“Intent on reversing America’s decline in the world’s production of cutting-edge semiconductors, the federal government has begun what is arguably the government’s largest foray into the private sector since World War II.” This “more muscular approach to industrial policy” is “pockmarked with risks. On balance, the record of government trying to improve the functioning of the private sector is poor, and particularly in complex sectors like semiconductors, the challenges are great.”
Tags: Complex, Cutting edge, Decline, Government, Industrial policy, Intent, Private-sector, Production, Reversing, Risks, Semiconductors, U.S., WWII
Bloomberg (June 15)
With the U.S. and China poised for a “Great Decoupling,” many American “executives worry they will be shut out of what remains the world’s most promising market. The more the U.S. blocks the export of components like semiconductors and jet engines to China, and imposes tough sanctions on anyone who violates such bans, the more it will force not just Chinese companies to stop buying American components but those from third countries aiming to sell to China.”
Tags: Bans, China, Executives, Exports, Great Decoupling, Jet engines, Market, Promising, Sanctions, Semiconductors, U.S.
Bloomberg (April 28)
“For years, technologists have been talking about smarter cars packed with sensors, chips and supercomputers that can replace human drivers.That was enough to get investors excited about the future of automotive semiconductors.” As earnings reports are revealing, however, there is “one slight flaw in the plan: People need to actually buy cars.”
Tags: Automotive, Cars, Chips, Drivers, Earnings, Investors, Semiconductors, Sensors, Supercomputers, Technologists
