According to Reuters, the US administration urged chipmakers to prepare for disruptions in the supply of key materials for their manufacture from Russia - to look for new sellers and diversify current supply chains.
This came after the Techcet group published a report that highlighted the dependence of many semiconductor manufacturers on a large number of pure chemical materials of Russian and Ukrainian origin, including palladium, helium, neon, fluorine and scandium.
For example, the Techcet report states that 35% of palladium in the United States comes from the Russian Federation, and more than 90% of neon comes from Ukraine, although it is delivered there from Russia for cleaning.
The US administration thought that such strategic resources might not be available to American manufacturers and other companies around the world due to geopolitical disagreements and reverse sanctions from the Russian Federation after the US imposed restrictions on the export of American technologies, including smartphones and software developments.
The White House is now advising its electronics and IT companies to seek other sources of key semiconductor materials. However, there are not many alternative sources of such elements, and most of them are located in China or already have a queue of customers for several years to come.
Representatives of the Semiconductor Industry Association are aware of the situation and are now closely involved in resolving it both with the US administration and with member companies of the association.
Experts explained to Reuters that in any case of an escalation of the problem will lead to a shortage of these components, but the production of semiconductors will not be stopped. In their opinion, there will be a significant rise in prices for the necessary components, which will affect the industry in general and in particular supply chains, which will also become more expensive and take longer to work out. As a result, the cost of chips will increase, although chip manufacturers will benefit the most from this, including Intel, Samsung, UMS, SMIC, GlobalFoundries and TSMC.
Earlier, the media reported that on February 12, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will discuss with Russian electronics manufacturers the risks of introducing technological sanctions against the domestic semiconductor industry.
On January 20, 2022, foreign media reported that representatives of the Semiconductor Industry Association are discussing options for export restrictions of microchips to Russia with the US administration. The restriction may affect the supply of chips, computers, consumer electronics, telecommunications equipment, and other equipment manufactured anywhere in the world using American technology. Market experts have estimated that Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and Realme will lose 760 billion rubles (about $10 billion) a year in the event of sanctions against Russia and a ban on direct deliveries.
In early January, the media reported that Sber had conducted technological exercises to simulate situations with the bank's IT infrastructure being disconnected from the support of Microsoft, Nvidia, VMware, SAP, Oracle, Intel and other foreign vendors. The financial institution did this as part of a test scenario in case of restrictions imposed by foreign partners.
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