(RepublicanInformer.com)- The United States Department of Commerce will reportedly release more information from a study of semiconductor chips – the chips used in cell phones, laptops, tablets, and other computer technology – that was performed last year. It comes at a time of a global chip shortage, where suppliers cannot keep up with the extremely high demand from manufacturers all over the world.
In September, the Department of Commerce asked microchip manufacturers and other companies in the same industry to submit data voluntarily that would help the federal government understand why the shortage was occurring. The shortage has caused problems in the cell phone manufacturing market but has had perhaps the most serious effect on auto production globally.
The effect on automakers is expected to last until 2023 and beyond, making the results of this study – and the response from the United States government – particularly important.
The Commerce Department also said on Monday that they were seeking input on new programs that would incentivize investment from the government into the research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States. It would be a natural progression from former President Donald Trump’s continued efforts to bring manufacturing back to the United States.
Commerce Secretary Gina Ramondo confirmed on Monday that the U.S. faces an “immediate supply shortage that’s driving up prices” that poses a long-term threat to the economic prospects and national security of the country.
Currently, semiconductors are primarily imported from Asia, with Hong Kong and China being two of the biggest suppliers to global markets.
Without greater domestic manufacturing of semiconductor chips, the United States will increasingly rely on technology from China. It would give the Chinese Communist Party the ability to immediately shut down American access to modern technology, give China the upper hand in technological developments, and make the U.S. weaker economically and less safe.
The shortage of chips is already so bad in the West that Stellantis, a minivan automaker, announced that its Windsor auto assembly plant in Ontario, Canada, would shut down. Imagine what will happen in just a few more years without greater domestic manufacturing of microchips.
Thankfully, some progress is already being made, with a $17 billion plant being built by Samsung in Taylor, Texas, and a $20 billion plan for two manufacturing plants in Ohio put forward by Intel.
