There’s a lot of fear mongering surrounding high purity quartz (“HPQ”) and Spruce Pine, NC following the devastating flooding from Hurricane Helene
The area contains the purest form of natural quartz, but the significance of supply disruptions from the mines is exaggerated
1/8

https://twitter.com/FossilLocator/status/1840218595541778791

First - inventory levels for raw wafer companies are currently low, but even then, there’s ~3 months of DIO at Globalwafers and Siltronic and 8 months of DIO at SUMCO. Existing inventory is a buffer.
Can mining activities restart within 3 months?
Probably.
2/8

1/4 - Chevron deference has just been struck down by the US Supreme Court. What is it and how does it affect semiconductor companies? ⬇️
Under that 40-yr-old legal doctrine, US federal agencies had the power to create their own rules & regulations when a law is ambiguous. In our industry, this is particularly relevant for technology export controls – agencies were in the driver’s seat and didn’t have to worry about being challenged in Court. This is now over, and the power has been handed back to the Court system after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bridge Enterprises v Raimondo. 2/4 - The US Commerce Department’s Commerce Control List is a set of items subject to export controls and includes a plethora of Semiconductor products and manufacturing equipment. Currently over 500 pages long, items on the list are identified in exacting detail by Commerce Department officials with subject matter expertise without direct input from Congress, and free from any serious worries of court challenges. Updating the list to close loopholes and adapt to rapidly evolving technology is a perpetual game of whack-a-mole.