US President Joe Biden came up with a’Supply Chain Cooperation with Allies’ card as a card to check China and to increase the stability of its own industry. While China is politically strengthening cooperation with the’Quad’ (the US, Japan, India and Australia security consultative body) to check China’s expansion of maritime advances, as seen in the past,’Rare-earth export restrictions’, China is a weapon of check against other countries. It is interpreted with the intention to come up with a countermeasure considering that products with a high domestic market share can be used. In addition, as car makers are facing difficulties such as production cuts due to the recent lack of semiconductors for vehicles, stable procurement of major components such as semiconductors has important implications not only for industrial development but also for economic security, so not only the United States but also Europe and Japan are actively expanding their supply chains. .
According to the Nippon Geizai Shimbun on the 24th, President Biden plans to sign a presidential decree within this month that strengthens cooperation and ties in the supply chain with allies on semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries, rare earths, and medical supplies. Specific cooperation and linkage measures are known to be △sharing supply chain information of major products among allied countries, △reviewing measures to support each other quickly in an emergency, △consultation on the establishment of stockpile and surplus productivity, △complementation of production items, etc. Semiconductors are discussed in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, and rare earths are in Australia.
The US government is actively pursuing measures to strengthen the supply chain, aiming at industrial development and Chinese checks at the same time. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US White House discussed supply chain issues with opposition lawmakers, including the shortage of automotive semiconductors in the US auto industry.
Senate leader Chuck Schumer, in particular, said he called on Congress to create a bipartisan bill for public pressure. It is reported that the content is asking for a large-scale subsidy approved last year to support the artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor industry. “We hope that this bill will contain the short- and long-term initiatives that will protect our semiconductor supply chain and ensure that the United States remains the world’s number one in AI, 5G, quantum computing, and biomedical research,” said Dr. Schumer. “Have you ever seen American car factories close their doors because they couldn’t get chips?” he said. “You can’t rely on foreign companies and you can’t let China outpace us in production.” CNBC reported last week that President Biden would sign an executive order to comprehensively investigate and review overseas dependence on semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries, and rare earths, which is also interpreted as a measure related to strengthening the supply chain.
The former Donald Trump administration prevented China’s Huawei from supplying US-made semiconductors and economically checked them, but the Biden administration seems to use the supply chain as a means.
Semiconductors, etc., can be used as a’weapon’ that pressures the other party at any time by’limiting the supply’ of core materials and materials, and it is the judgment of the United States and Europe that the industry will be hit if they are not reliably procured. Accordingly, there has been a continuing movement to expand production in the region. In particular, since the end of last year, as automakers set up production lines or cut production due to a shortage of vehicle semiconductors, the movement to strengthen the supply chain has accelerated. Market research firm Omdia announced that in the first quarter of this year, automobile production disruptions due to semiconductor shortages will reach 1 million units.
According to Boston Consulting, Taiwan has the highest share of semiconductor production capacity in the global market last year at 22%, followed by Korea (21%), Japan (15%), China (15%), and the United States (12%). It is observed that China’s share of semiconductor production capacity will increase to 24% in 2030, increasing its dependence on the global market.
The United States is reaching out to Taiwan and others to establish a stable supply chain for semiconductors. Former President Donald Trump opened a plant of TSMC, the world’s largest foundry (consignment of semiconductor manufacturing), in Arizona last year. In addition, in November of last year, the US and Taiwan signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for technical cooperation in seven items including semiconductors and AI. Japan is also seeking cooperation with TSMC. Recently, the European Union (EU) announced an advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology development project worth 50 billion euros.
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