Chip Shortage? Just Wait! A fire at a chip manufacturing plant in Berlin is going to make the chip shortage even worse. "The blaze broke out overnight on Sunday at a plant in Berlin...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

A fire at a chip manufacturing plant in Berlin is going to make the chip shortage even worse.

"The blaze broke out overnight on Sunday at a plant in Berlin owned by ASML Holding. Although far from a household name, the Dutch company is the world’s largest supplier of photolithography systems and the only source of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) photolithography machines, which are used to etch circuits onto silicon wafers and create computer chips used by Apple, IBM and Samsung."
- NewScientist

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Depends on how many machines were going to be sold. (They make the SYSTEMS)
If the chip manufacturers have enough machines (systems) at the moment, shouldn't be large problem.
It would just delay any expansion that MAY have been in the mill.

But, we can use the information to inflate another "shortage" of chips.

anotherview Loc: California

High government officials might now consider the business practice of having more than one vendor to supply goods and services. This arrangement works under capitalism by the natural mechanism of competition. Thereupon, companies strive to outdo each other, typically lowering costs while improving their output.

jerryc41 wrote:

A fire at a chip manufacturing plant in Berlin is ... (show quote)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

anotherview wrote:

High government officials might now consider the business practice of having more than one vendor to supply goods and services. This arrangement works under capitalism by the natural mechanism of competition. Thereupon, companies strive to outdo each other, typically lowering costs while improving their output.

That's called a pipe dream.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

anotherview wrote:

High government officials might now consider the business practice of having more than one vendor to supply goods and services. This arrangement works under capitalism by the natural mechanism of competition. Thereupon, companies strive to outdo each other, typically lowering costs while improving their output.

What they typically do is two of the company’s senior managers will negotiate a deal for one company to be acquired/merged by the other. This cycle will be repeated until there are only a couple of companies, or even one company, left in the game thereby providing it with the pricing power that a sole source has in a non-competitive market. During this game, the senior managers of the acquired company(s) will leave with multi-million dollar golden parachutes and the acquiring company senior managers will receive multi-million dollar bonuses for their prowess in managing and executing such a great deal. The senior managers of the acquired companies will go on to acquire senior positions in other fields or industries with hopes of getting on that merry-go-round again.

Stan

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Oh, gee, Jerry - I thought this was about chocolate chips! THAT would be a problem.

Chadp Loc: Virginia Beach

I only clicked on this because I thought you were talking about potato chips.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Longshadow wrote:

That's called a pipe dream.

Yes, unfortunately. In many cases, there are few choices. If you are having your blood tested, it will go to one of only two major labs that do testing. One is LabCorp, and the other is Quest Diagnostics, and they are both very expensive. Each was sued by the government for overcharging.

JBRIII

Want a real worry.

From what I have repeatedly read, there is one company in Japan that makes all the really large power transformers. One big solar flare like that in the 1850's and the electric grid of the US or anywhere else could be toast for months or longer!
Congress knows, has or had a commitee which has done nothing.

cbabcock

anotherview wrote:

High government officials might now consider the business practice of having more than one vendor to supply goods and services. This arrangement works under capitalism by the natural mechanism of competition. Thereupon, companies strive to outdo each other, typically lowering costs while improving their output.

Who had the smart idea of "just in time" parts supply? Would the supply chain issue be less if manufacturers had more parts inventory, like they used to?

JBRIII

cbabcock wrote:

Who had the smart idea of "just in time" parts supply? Would the supply chain issue be less if manufacturers had more parts inventory, like they used to?

First no disagreement.

Second, this probably isn't what many want to hear, but only government regulation that creates an even playing field can stop such things. If two companies made equally good X and one goes to "parts on demand" and drops prices 10%, story over. True there are circumstances where old way would pay off, like now, but by then your out of business. Problem is that regulations would also require that all imports have at least two sources for every part, etc. And of course, such regulations would be abused, a mess, etc.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

cbabcock wrote:

Who had the smart idea of "just in time" parts supply? Would the supply chain issue be less if manufacturers had more parts inventory, like they used to?

Yes, that's a risky game. If one supplier hiccups, all production stops. If it works, profit goes up.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

jerryc41 wrote:

Yes, unfortunately. In many cases, there are few choices. If you are having your blood tested, it will go to one of only two major labs that do testing. One is LabCorp, and the other is Quest Diagnostics, and they are both very expensive. Each was sued by the government for overcharging.

See my post above - rampant consolidation (fewer choices) in similar industries/services allows for predatory pricing. M&A's or consolidation is why we pay so much for beef, cable service, office supplies, etc. Same thing for many other consumer products. Our anti-trust oversight in this country has become non-existent.

Stan

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

StanMac wrote:

See my post above - rampant consolidation (fewer choices) in similar industries/services allows for predatory pricing. M&A's or consolidation is why we pay so much for beef, cable service, office supplies, etc. Same thing for many other consumer products. Our anti-trust oversight in this country has become non-existent.

Stan

Well, that's the current (and future) state of affairs.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

jerryc41 wrote:

Yes, unfortunately. In many cases, there are few choices. If you are having your blood tested, it will go to one of only two major labs that do testing. One is LabCorp, and the other is Quest Diagnostics, and they are both very expensive. Each was sued by the government for overcharging.

I suffer from hand tremors. The neurologist has ruled out Parkinson's, which is a great relief! He said that there are about 40 conditions which could lead to this symptom, and there is only one lab which performs the analysis. They charge a fortune for it, and the kicker is, there is no cure for any of them when you *do* find out!

It's no biggie... Scans show that part of my brain is melting, but it just means a long, slow decline, which is already happening anyway!