More Semiconductor Equipment for North America

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
55,634
While you cannot get much granularity from the Semi.org site without subscribing to its service, you can however get a look at the big picture which looks to be a good thing for North America.

SEMI reports that the three-month average of worldwide billings of North American equipment manufacturers in May 2017 was $2.27 billion. The billings figure is 6.4 percent higher than the final April 2017 level of $2.14 billion, and is 41.9 percent higher than the May 2016 billings level of $1.60 billion.

"Semiconductor equipment billings for North American headquartered equipment manufacturers increased for the fourth month in a row and are 42 percent higher than the same month last year," said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. "The strength of this cycle continues to be driven by Memory and Foundry manufacturers as the industry invests in 3D NAND and other leading-edge technologies."
 
Let's please keep this thread off of politics please.
 
That'd be great if we brought more manufacturing here. In the past, I've always tried to make it a point to buy "Made in USA" products. If more technology products were made here, I'd be interested in those as well. Yes, you pay more sometimes. But, I've found the higher quality Chinese/Japanese shit is just as expensive. You can get the cheap Chinese shit, but it's lower quality (which is fine for some more 'disposable' products that you really don't care much about).

Bringing more jobs to the US is excellent. Especially the higher wage, somewhat skilled, jobs. I worked in a fab many, many years ago (Voodoo/TNT chipsets in 1998/99). It paid a few dollars more than minimum wage, the work was just very simple stuff. It was fun, didn't require much skill at all, but you could easily move up into other positions. I was just a simple operator. Those that do the other things got paid quite a bit more.
 
Ur_Mom said:
That'd be great if we brought more manufacturing here. In the past, I've always tried to make it a point to buy "Made in USA" products. If more technology products were made here, I'd be interested in those as well. Yes, you pay more sometimes. But, I've found the higher quality Chinese/Japanese shit is just as expensive. You can get the cheap Chinese shit, but it's lower quality (which is fine for some more 'disposable' products that you really don't care much about).

Bringing more jobs to the US is excellent. Especially the higher wage, somewhat skilled, jobs. I worked in a fab many, many years ago (Voodoo/TNT chipsets in 1998/99). It paid a few dollars more than minimum wage, the work was just very simple stuff. It was fun, didn't require much skill at all, but you could easily move up into other positions. I was just a simple operator. Those that do the other things got paid quite a bit more.
Click to expand...

I do think that it's good to manufacture semiconductors in USA, but not because of any inherent 'bring jobs back' element to it. I think that the semiconductor industry is of strategic important to those United States, and I would not advocate moving the fabs to PRC if possible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DocNo
like this
Reimu said:
I do think that it's good to manufacture semiconductors in USA, but not because of any inherent 'bring jobs back' element to it. I think that the semiconductor industry is of strategic important to those United States, and I would not advocate moving the fabs to PRC if possible.
Click to expand...

I think if we bring the jobs back, we can get more people into the industry. I feel that the US is falling behind in science research and development. Also, I think our semiconductors should be made here. If someone wanted to take our country down, putting in some hidden 'kill switch' or other issue in a processor would be an easy way. Especially once the market is saturated in those devices.
 
Ur_Mom said:
I think if we bring the jobs back, we can get more people into the industry. I feel that the US is falling behind in science research and development. Also, I think our semiconductors should be made here. If someone wanted to take our country down, putting in some hidden 'kill switch' or other issue in a processor would be an easy way. Especially once the market is saturated in those devices.
Click to expand...
I only really know high level stuff about manufacturing of semiconductors, but don't all the wafers go through an inspection process in which they are examined looking for mistakes and issues? Wouldn't something new added in be caught at this phase?
 
Hypergreatthing said:
I only really know high level stuff about manufacturing of semiconductors, but don't all the wafers go through an inspection process in which they are examined looking for mistakes and issues? Wouldn't something new added in be caught at this phase?
Click to expand...

I don't know... My paranoia doesn't really use much logic. :D
 
As someone working in semicon in Dallas (physical design), I'd much rather sh*t was done here than in Bang-Galore
(that misspelling was on purpose)
 
The problem is that the cost of doing business is higher in the US for many manufacturing jobs. If more jobs are brought into the USA from oversees, prices will go up. Normally when prices go up, sales go down. This is why the $15/hour minimum wage won't work. No politics here, just simple economics.
 
[21CW]killerofall said:
The problem is that the cost of doing business is higher in the US for many manufacturing jobs. If more jobs are brought into the USA from oversees, prices will go up. Normally when prices go up, sales go down. This is why the $15/hour minimum wage won't work. No politics here, just simple economics.
Click to expand...
I think it's a bit more complicated than that.
More jobs = more wages, more people with money to buy, therefore a bigger market. More exports which means more money coming into the country to offset higher wages.
Really the only people that benefit from globalism are the share holders.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top