Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

Post by allisdust » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

livinglist wrote: post #21

atlantas wrote: post #10

90%! Did we really let ourselves become so reliant on Ukraine and Taiwan for computer chips? Taiwan being the next country most under threat. In fact, Reuters just reported that "Taiwan warns Chinese aircraft in its air defence zone" https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-reports-ni...

as a Chinese raised in China myself, this happens pretty regularly since years ago. I don’t think Winnie the Pooh has big balls to attack Taiwan in recent future. China has too much to lose right now.

Post by ajross » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 6:40 PM UTC

roughly wrote: post #11

perihelions wrote: post #2

How is neon extracted and why does one country have a 90% monopoly (in this specific grade)? edit: Found this C&EN story from 2016 that adds context: - "Chip makers, which account for more than 90% of global neon consumption, are already experiencing high prices and some shortages stemming from the Russian conflict with Ukraine, Shon-Roy says. The war, which started in 2014, interrupted global supplies of the gas, ab…

Scale and geographic concentration tend to push prices lower, even if just fractionally, and relatively low costs of transport for basically anything in the world mean there's no penalty for buying from far away, so there aren't many factors pushing back from geographic concentration. Add to that concentration in other industries - a market with fewer larger buyers means larger average individual demand than otherwis…

Post by CountSessine » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 6:42 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #43

CountSessine wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they'll be watching what happens in Ukraine very carefully. Then they'll be calibrating their predictions about what would happen if they invaded Taiwan with Russia's experience in Ukraine.

I doubt the TSMC fabs would survive a PLA invasion of Taiwan. If nothing else, the CIA would probably blow them up during the attack.

Post by car_analogy » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 6:43 PM UTC

mvc wrote: post #38

atlantas wrote: post #10

90%! Did we really let ourselves become so reliant on Ukraine and Taiwan for computer chips? Taiwan being the next country most under threat. In fact, Reuters just reported that "Taiwan warns Chinese aircraft in its air defence zone" https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-reports-ni...

Are we in favor of economics/capitalism here or are we not? Because the economics literature is quite clear that international trade is beneficial to all involved. It's what we insist that developing countries focus on exports when loaning them money. For many years, Taiwan has been the poster child that we point to when trying to change the ways of Cuba or Venezuela. Are these principles so weak that we would allow…

Post by oneoff786 » Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 6:43 PM UTC

bingohbangoh wrote: post #51

roughly wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we saved some money by shuttering all our factories and outsourcing everything, so, who's to say what the right answer was. (/s)

And when the orange man came and said we should bring it back, I laughed at home and call him an idiot!