Closure of 3M chip coolant plant could upset semiconductor sector
taipeitimes.com
taipeitimes.com
As this article notes, the problem itself has been known for 4-5 years now:
June 2021: https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/175007/p...
> Flashback: In 2017, a chemical known as PFOS was found to have been discharged from the 3M plant into the soil. The discovery was made when works started on the Oosterweel project, a massive public works project designed to complete the Antwerp ring-road on the western side, to link the port to the motorways network.
> The discovery was made by the contractor BAM, now known as Lantis, and an agreement was reached with 3M on how to proceed.
Goodness knows how they could go 4-5 years only to discover that the planned remediation, which they were only set to start putting in place in July of last year, was not allowed under their environmental regulations.
Next, September 2021: https://www.startribune.com/3m-under-fire-in-belgium-over-co...
> The notice essentially warns 3M that Flanders deems the company to be violating its environmental regulations, and demands that 3M engage with its regulators to discuss remediation, abatement and the creation of a fund to pay for environmental damages and potential health damages.
November 2021: https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/202111014178/3m-s...
> 3M Co. on Monday said it has idled some production at a plant in Belgium after the Flemish environmental agency issued a safety measure barring emissions of certain toxic chemicals from the facility.
Because what is and isn't allowed depends a lot on whether your paperwork crosses the bureaucrat's desk just before lunch on Monday or just after lunch on Friday.
They probably had all sorts of preliminary oks and then got denied at the 11th hour because internal political winds changed in whatever office they were dealing with.
Maybe we should be asking how toxic is this coolant that such a plant was forced closed by new regulations?
I suspect that this is a more challenging problem than you think.
The article says PFAS, but I'm going to guess it is Flourinert[1].
The whole thing about fluorinated hydrocarbons is that it can't burn through oxidation.
Probably a very hard thing to swap out without compromises on fire hazard or corrosion.
Periodic table does not have many alternatives to fluorine :)
Waste can be dealt with, but society needs a good tariff system to prevent groups from bypassing costs…
But it's toxic enough that when it builds up it causes problems that are very difficult to detect.
Finding a less toxic alternative isn't easy - it took decades to discover the toxicity of the current chemical, specifically because its toxicity is so low.
Maybe, just maybe, and work with me here, it's not that big a deal. Treating everything as if it were plutonium isn't a sustainable way to move humanity forward.
Anathema to the EU's way of thinking, certainly... yet defensible from an objective point of view.
Even if the end result is inert, there are probably a LOT of waste byproducts that are pretty nasty--this is fluorine chemistry, after all.
If the site is just dumping those, that's going to be bad.
There is also a big difference between containing the product and manufacturing the product.
To be fair, it doesn't sound like 3M was trying very hard to contain this--they mostly seemed to just be dragging their feet and doing business as usual.
This plant closure appears to have been in the works for several years so it is unfathomable that the chipmakers are not prepared for this.
Based on what I've seen in the corporate world, I think it's far more likely that chip makers convinced themselves that, given how critical this plant is to the chip supply chain, either 3M would finally address the issue or the Belgium government would blink, and so continued to operate as usual.
Frankly, I expect 3M thought the same, hence their half-assed and illegal attempt to fix the issue.
But the Chinese don't care. One reason why they can offer them cheaper. No one cares how the stuff is produced there. Expendable environment, expendable worker.
https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/rare-earth-eleme...
Except governments have no incentive to look at such opportunities in advances.
A capitalist company has a profit motive to look at everything that can go wrong, and react accordingly and quickly.
See the MTT GPU as an example of such response: they bought PowerVR when it made sense to.
Now GPUs are in shortage because there are priced too low, because they have only 2 manufacturers who don't want to get a bad reputation of "predatory pricing".
New entrants may care less, and even a GPU that's only competitive to the 1070 may sell if it's more easily available.
I do not think a bailout of PowerVR would have had such results. It may also have come with strings attached, reducing the flexibility needed.
My suggestion also involved capitalist companies.
If what you are saying us true, why is the supply chain so messed up? Why didn’t the laissez faire proponents foresee this and react? There is plenty of profit to be made, where are the new entrants?
Im not familiar with the specific company mentioned, but GPUs are in shortage because the market became concentrated (the end result of neoliberal economics) and a supply shock inevitably broke it. Everything you mention about pricing is a post hoc effect of that. A more interventionist government would see that and use antitrust laws and subsidies to create a more robust marketplace, while neoliberals go “this is fine” while the room is in fire.