More MAGA misfires
Samsung’s Taylor, Texas plant
Guancha’s headline article today reports about this SNAFU or FUBAR depending on your interpretation. The geoeconomic plan to make the Outlaw US Empire the global chip monopoly has already hit big snags and continues. Here’s the report:
According to a report on the website of Japan’s Nikkei Asia on July 3, a person familiar with the matter revealed that due to the difficulty of finding customers, South Korean chip giant Samsung Electronics had to postpone the completion of its semiconductor factory in Taylor, Texas, USA, and is delaying the purchase of factory equipment.
The schedule [of the Taylor chip factory] was delayed because there were no customers. Even if you ship the device now, [Samsung] can’t do anything. The report quoted an unnamed source familiar with the matter as writing.
According to the report, a chip supply chain executive familiar with the inside story also said that because the local demand for chips is not strong, and Samsung already has a chip factory in Austin, Texas, it is not in a hurry to install chip manufacturing equipment in Taylor’s new factory.
Again, we see all sorts of logistical, labor, and government red tape problems that make the Outlaw US Empire a very poor choice for locating any sort of factory. And in this case, the product to be produced is tied up in a geopolitical power struggle. Samsung needs domestic US customers for its products, but no one wants to manufacture within the US and thus the paucity of customers. Samsung also appears to have major problems at home too. The troubles TSMC and Samsung are experiencing are likely shared by others and send a signal to others musing about locating within the Empire to avoid tariffs. Samsung’s actions reflect the great amount of uncertainly Trump’s policies have injected into business planning, and the idle factory still costs money to maintain while not generating any revenue. Another implication emphasized is the lack of qualified personnel to operate the plant that will need to be trained by staff imported from South Korea if the plant opens in 2027 that illustrates the basic problem with US labor being high cost-low skill. Imagine sinking $37 Billion into an investment project and not making enough to break even.
https://karlof1.substack.com/p/no-customers-after-receiving-a-47