Congress passes CHIPS act
Congress passed its historic $52 billion federal program to boost domestic chipmaking but included one significant caveat: Companies that get funding can’t increase production of advanced chips in China. It adds to escalating geopolitical tensions and will hit firms like Intel and TSMC
This is compares to China, which has prepared investments of more than $150 billion through 2030, according to one estimate. South Korea has a budget of roughly $260 billion to spend in chip investments over the next five years. The EU is pursuing more than $40 billion in public and private semiconductor investments. Japan is spending about $6 billion to double its domestic chip revenue by the end of the decade.
Book tax – bad!
The proposed “book tax” in the Senate’s reconciliation bill – aka the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, “…would overwhelmingly hit U.S. manufacturers,” according to a new analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s non-partisan tax scorekeeper.
The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WVA), proposes a 15% minimum corporate levy, or “book tax,” on certain companies.
The provision is estimated to raise $313 billion, and JCT finds that manufacturers would be responsible for paying nearly half of it.
A few bad Finishing Apples
The President of ASP Plating, a plating company in Grand Haven, MI and one other man pled guilty to dumping zinc in violation of the Clean Water Act. They had been doing this for over 6 years. Read about their blatant disregard for the future of the plating industry in the US here.
When one Finisher ignores the rules, neighbors, citizens, and legislators are understandably angry and much more likely to vote for harsher regulations in the future.
The Reshoring Initiative predicts 350K new jobs in the US in 2022
This is even better than the number of jobs they say were created in 2021 also due to reshoring.
Job Announcements per year 2010- 2022 (proj.)
Upcoming Conferences
40th Annual MFASC Metal Finishing Conference,
San Jose, CA Sept 22, 2022
Montebello, CA Sept 20, 2022
https://mfaca.org/product/40th-annual-mfasc-metal-finishing-conference-exhibitor-registration/
Electroless Nickel Conference
Indianapolis, October 11 – 13, 2022
ENC22 will feature electroless nickel education and networking opportunities — all centered around improving quality, maximizing production and making the connections that could power a business through the next decade.