Wasn’t the semiconductor crisis already enough?

News of the day, Friday, March 25

The continuation of Russia’s war against Ukraine may lead to a dramatic neon production decrease, which is an essential gas for semiconductor manufacturing. According to Peter Hanbury, the semiconductor expert of Bain & Co consulting company, more than half of neon in the world is produced by a few companies in Ukraine. “Historically, up to 90% of the neon for the chip industry was produced as a by-product of Russian steel manufacturing and later refined by companies mainly based in Ukraine,”. The biggest chip manufacturers (Intel, TSMC, and Samsung) have a several-month reserve of neon now, thus the effect of supply outage is delayed.

The USA and the EU have reached an agreement for energy sources supply to decrease dependence on Russian commodities. European countries aim to import the additional 50 billion cubic meters of shale gas from the USA until 2030. The USA is planning to ship 15 billion kiloliters of gas in 2022. The Economy Minister of Germany concluded: "By the middle of the year, Russian oil imports to Germany are expected to be halved".

The price of Brent crude is $115.80, WTI — $109.20, GBP/USD — 1.3163, EUR/USD — 1.1015, and gold costs $1956.00 per ounce.