Last month, right around the time that most Americans were gearing up for the holiday season, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) revealed its new plans for both bolstering the national semiconductor supply chain and protecting U.S. national security.
Source: Boosting the U.S Semiconductor Supply Chain | Supply Chain Connect
The chip industry continues to navigate headwinds both in the form of slumping orders and empty positions. For some chipmakers, including TSMC, these issues have overlapped to form a perfect storm of challenges. The Taiwanese chip giant is reportedly delaying 2nm production by another year. As the industry takes steps to manage slowing orders, establishing a secure workforce for tomorrow remains a top priority. Intel has launched a new certificate program in Ohio to bolster the number of technicians in the area through affordable access to education.
There are a lot of reasons why companies diversify their supply chains, with some of the most recent drivers being the pandemic-related disruptions, the global semiconductor shortage and the recent rash of natural disasters and catastrophic weather events.
Source: Is it Time to Diversify Your Electronics Supply Chain? | Supply Chain Connect
The May Electronic Component Sales Trends (ECST) survey shows overall sales sentiment took a body blow compared with expectations, reported the ECIA, and collapsed to 72.2 points compared with previous forecasts for the month. The May index fell by 14.5 points compared with the April index of 86.8. This is the third month in a row of declining results.
WASHINGTON—April 6, 2023—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced global semiconductor industry sales totaled $39.7 billion during the month of February 2023, a decrease of 4.0% compared to the January 2023 total of $41.3 billion and 20.7% less than the February 2022 total of $50.0 billion. Monthly sales are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average. SIA represents 99% of the U.S. semiconductor industry by revenue and nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. chip firms.
China’s semiconductor sales plunged 21.2 per cent year on year to US$13.4 billion in November, as economic headwinds continued to hammer global chip demand for the third consecutive month, according to the latest industry data. The decline recorded by China marked the biggest percentage drop among the world’s major markets for integrated circuits (ICs), according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), a Washington-based trade group that represents 99 per cent of the US chip industry.
Not every company celebrates twenty years in business, even less celebrate the success and market leadership enjoyed by Koh Young. As leader of a startup in 2002, I am sure Dr. Koh had not imagined the success of the team he built and the innovations that changed the industry. As well as celebrating our 20-year anniversary in 2022, we also installed our 20,000th inspection machine. And in the Americas alone, we installed nearly 500 machines. All in all 2022 was another banner year on the back of numerous years of growth and innovation. So, as we look to 2023, we do so with guarded enthusiasm.
Source: Electronic Manufacturing Trends in 2023 – How We See It – EMSNow
The electronics supply chain — for both civilian and military applications — has faced numerous difficulties over the last several years. They collectively resulted in issues such as order delays and problems getting components from a manufacturer’s usual suppliers. However, the supply chain challenges for the defense sector are even more worrisome because they cause national security risks. People involved in sourcing or supplying electronics for the military must take decisive action to mitigate adverse effects.
Source: 4 Ways to Beat Defense Electronics Supply Challenges
As 2022 comes to an end, EE Times is highlighting memorable stories from each of its editors over the past year. Today’s spotlight is on Gina Roos, editor-in-chief of Electronic Products. Gina previously founded Electronics Advocate, an online magazine covering design and supply chain issues in the electronics industry. It was sold to MMG Publishing U.K. in 2010. Gina also co-founded EPSNews, which AspenCore, a unit of Arrow Electronics, bought in 2017.ADVERTISING
Challenges remain and the pace of growth may ease, but the2023 Distributors Outlook is decidedly bullish.After three years of challenging, dramatic growth in the distribution arena, key industry executives see a time of leveling off on the near horizon. That won’t mean a decrease in investments, particularly in the digital assets that helped manage the growth and stabilized the pandemic-fueled activity of the recent past.
In a recent article, Foreign Affairs – a New York-based journal of international relations, predicted the inevitability of an “economic arms race” between the US and China. This might primarily affect the production of microelectronics, and Washington has already shown its strong desire to use any means available, including non-market ones, to win this race – a 100-percent American tactic to come on top of it in everything, no matter what, if possible, at the expense of others.
Source: US vs China – “semiconductor arms race” in microelectronics – Modern Diplomacy
After an extraordinary couple of years in the electronics sector dominated by the impact of the pandemic and supply chain challenges caused by pent-up demand, there are signs of calmer waters on the horizon, characterised by a more modest but predictable period of growth. According to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, the global semiconductor market will increase by 13.9 per cent in 2022 and will continue to grow by 4.6 per cent in 2023. While these statistics indicate a slowing in the rate of demand for worldwide semiconductors, they still show steady growth in all key regions of the world as the electronic industry starts to settle into a more manageable state of equilibrium.
Source: New Electronics – Outlook 2023: Navigating the waters ahead
