Friday, February 25th 2022
Semiconductor Makers Don't Expect Russia-Ukraine War to Worsen Chip Shortages
Much of the globalized world's logistics is still in disarray from the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, Russia has thrown its weight on the matter through its invasion of Ukraine. As the initial offensive played out in the early hours of February 24th, semiconductor industry analysts turned to the situation with a prying eye - how exactly could this deadlock, and the following political and economical sanctions towards Russia, impact the semiconductor industry? The consensus seems to be a favorable one: not that much.
"The semiconductor industry has a diverse set of suppliers of key materials and gases, so we do not believe there are immediate supply disruption risks related to Russia and Ukraine," said John Neuffer, chief executive and president of the Semiconductor Industry Association. That sentiment was echoed by Intel; a company representative told Bloomberg that the company does not anticipate "(...) any impact on our supply chain. Our strategy of having a diverse, global supply chain minimizes our risk of potential local interruptions."
Ukraine stands as the world's largest exporter of neon, a noble gas require for several steps in the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain. Companies like ASML and Micron stand as some of the biggest buyers for Ukrainian neon; but those companies have announced that their stockpiled neon and globalized supply sources for the noble gas were up to the task of curbing any severe impact resulting from damages to Ukraine's manufacturing and logistics capabilities.
"For Micron, we have a small part of our noble gases coming from Ukraine and, of course, we carry large inventory but more importantly have multiple sources of supply […] and we have long terms of supply with those suppliers," said Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of Micron, in a Bloomberg interview. "While we continue to monitor the situation carefully and certainly hope the situation will de-escalate, we believe, based on current analysis, that our supply chain of noble gases is in reasonable shape."
It remains to be seen how the conflict will impact the world's supply chains, but one thing is for sure: there will be economic consequences to the move from Russia which will reverberate - and are reverberating already - throughout the world's markets. It just seems that semiconductor manufacturing won't be one of the industries caught in the crossfire. There's already too much of humanity in that position, anyway.
Sources:
Bloomberg, Bloomberg, via Tom's Hardware
"The semiconductor industry has a diverse set of suppliers of key materials and gases, so we do not believe there are immediate supply disruption risks related to Russia and Ukraine," said John Neuffer, chief executive and president of the Semiconductor Industry Association. That sentiment was echoed by Intel; a company representative told Bloomberg that the company does not anticipate "(...) any impact on our supply chain. Our strategy of having a diverse, global supply chain minimizes our risk of potential local interruptions."
"For Micron, we have a small part of our noble gases coming from Ukraine and, of course, we carry large inventory but more importantly have multiple sources of supply […] and we have long terms of supply with those suppliers," said Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of Micron, in a Bloomberg interview. "While we continue to monitor the situation carefully and certainly hope the situation will de-escalate, we believe, based on current analysis, that our supply chain of noble gases is in reasonable shape."
It remains to be seen how the conflict will impact the world's supply chains, but one thing is for sure: there will be economic consequences to the move from Russia which will reverberate - and are reverberating already - throughout the world's markets. It just seems that semiconductor manufacturing won't be one of the industries caught in the crossfire. There's already too much of humanity in that position, anyway.
71 Comments on Semiconductor Makers Don't Expect Russia-Ukraine War to Worsen Chip Shortages
Disclamer: I don't support any war - it only brings suffering for everyone, but I hate hypocrites.
But the provocative actions were already started in 2014 and not by Russia alone.
The feeling of this conflict is different because it's right at the doorstep of "western" countries - and most of the people had no close contact with aggression. Most of these people probably supported all previous conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria etc. because it did not impact them at all - they didn't care about all the casualties that happened there since it was "far away".
War is hell and nobody should experience it (I did).
Then we will have no new tech for 5 years while we work on building our own fabsUkraine has been a corrupt oligarchy, just look up the video of Biden saying he would withhold a billion in aid to Ukraine if the investigator that was looking at the company his son worked for wasn’t fired. Biden only cares as the kickback stream keeping his son in coke and hookers is going to end.
Anyway, hopefully it doesn't spiral out of control and all the leaders and media remain calm and focussed so we don't have WW3!! I'm just glad I don't live on that side of the globe right now, and feel sorry for anyone who does. Scary stuff. I think semi-conductor shortage is the least of our worries now.
The wrong move was already done 8 years ago by NATO. Like I said I hate hypocrites.
Nevertheless, the way I see it, the west played right into the hands of Putin. I think one of his primary goals all along was to bring Ukraine(or at least part of it) back into the fold whether it be by diplomacy or war. Two steps forward, one step back, so depending on how things go for the invading Russians, I wouldn't be surprised if Russia partly pulls out of Ukraine and keeps everything east of the Dnieper unless there's something else they want further west.