Plans Cover Semiconductors, Batteries, Rare Earth Elements
The U.S. Congress and government have released U.S. industry growth plans to keep China in check. The government reports cover semiconductor, electric vehicle battery and pharmaceutical technologies along with rare earth elements and essential minerals.
Specifically, the Office of the United States Trade Representative will set up a task force against unfair trade practices and the United States Department of Commerce will decide whether to apply Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to neodymium magnets imported from China, which are rare earth element magnets indispensable in automobiles and defense articles.
The United States Department of Energy will work on a 10-year plan to establish a lithium battery supply chain in the United States. In addition, the White House is planning to hold an international conference with allies for supply chain reinforcement.
In the semiconductor report, Intel and Samsung Electronics are mentioned 30 and 27 times, respectively. In the report, the U.S. government mentioned Samsung Electronics as the second-largest player in the global semiconductor industry utilizing 5nm process technologies. In addition, it mentioned SK Hynix 10 times and the White House said that South Korea is playing a very important role in the global semiconductor supply chain.
The plan of the Congress is the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 with a scale of US$250 billion. The purposes of the new law include providing US$52 billion for U.S. semiconductor manufacturers, whose global market share has dropped from 37 percent to 12 percent since the 1990s.