Over a dozen of new fabs being built in the U.S., nine fabs are expanding.
CHIPS Act Spurs $200 Billion Investments in U.S. Semi Industry : Read more
CHIPS Act Spurs $200 Billion Investments in U.S. Semi Industry : Read more
Quality control would be the big issue. I think we should be working on a work transition pipeline for coal workers to start making chips. Grunt work but much cleaner and less dangerous. If we could make the pay similar it would be a good way to push a more holistic transition away from coal.Labor in Mexico is about the same price as China now. Mexico has a long history of electronics assembly. Why don't we make the chips in the US and do the packaging and assembly in Mexico for the North American market?
Not really that big a market globally though. E.g. a few years ago, NA and Europe had around 200 million smartphones shipped each per year. Worldwide the total number was nearly 1,500 million.Labor in Mexico is about the same price as China now. Mexico has a long history of electronics assembly. Why don't we make the chips in the US and do the packaging and assembly in Mexico for the North American market? There is no good reason the parts that make up my cellphone need to cross the ocean multiple times. I'm sure something similar could be done in Europe. Make the chips in Germany and do the assembly in eastern Europe. Keep things more local when possible. Both markets are plenty big to support it.
Foxconn had plants in Mexico, a long time ago. I presume they're still around. There are North/South rail corridors that support some of this trade. And there's NAFTA, which I think makes it fairly frictionless.Labor in Mexico is about the same price as China now. Mexico has a long history of electronics assembly. Why don't we make the chips in the US and do the packaging and assembly in Mexico for the North American market?
Hmmm... none of the new plants seem to be located in West Virginia. One is in Idaho, which I think is another big coal state.I think we should be working on a work transition pipeline for coal workers to start making chips.
That's not due to lack of manufacturing capacity. That's because a major production facility got halted for inspections due to contamination concerns, after some infants died. Apparently, there wasn't nearly enough slack among the competing producers, which is why the shortage happened. The worst shortages were in specialized formulas, and maybe there was little or no competition in some of those niches?Quite ambitious, considering that the U.S. was already struggling to keep up a supply of infant formula by itself, huh?
But, probably the USA/Europe handsets were higher-end & higher-margin than most of the rest. The majority of the world's cell phones only cost around $100 and probably have very thin margins.Not really that big a market globally though. E.g. a few years ago, NA and Europe had around 200 million smartphones shipped each per year. Worldwide the total number was nearly 1,500 million.