When Did We Realize the Chip Shortage Was an Issue
Transcript
Justin : Good, Louis. I’m curious, is China your biggest competitor? And exactly when did you know that there was going to be a chip shortage of this nature in this magnitude? n
nLewis :nWell, China produces 83% of the world’s tungsten and Russia produces the other sort of seven. So 90% of it comes from these two countries. So they are the ones that dictate who gets what, as for the chip shortage, we obviously provide the tungsten that’s using the tungsten gas, which is pumped into every semiconductor produced. And so we’d already seen from our customers last year, that and this was probably in the spring of last year. n
nAnd then you started to see it more publicly become aware as car plants started to slow down and then shut, and then of course, chilly in the wider market, because you had inventory on the day on the dealership, you know, for courts, there was there was inventory, so it had less of an impact, but we were seeing it last spring that this was a problem. And ultimately, the industry was trying to look for a solution?nn
nLewis :nWell, China produces 83% of the world’s tungsten and Russia produces the other sort of seven. So 90% of it comes from these two countries. So they are the ones that dictate who gets what, as for the chip shortage, we obviously provide the tungsten that’s using the tungsten gas, which is pumped into every semiconductor produced. And so we’d already seen from our customers last year, that and this was probably in the spring of last year. n
nAnd then you started to see it more publicly become aware as car plants started to slow down and then shut, and then of course, chilly in the wider market, because you had inventory on the day on the dealership, you know, for courts, there was there was inventory, so it had less of an impact, but we were seeing it last spring that this was a problem. And ultimately, the industry was trying to look for a solution?nn