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Technology companies in Russia are exploring ways to produce computer hardware—namely semi-conductors and chips—since sanctions have been imposed on the country due to its invasion of Ukraine.
JSC Mikron, MCST, and Baikal Electronics are some of the Russian companies impacted by the new trade restrictions after Samsung, Qualcomm, and Intel have suspended business with Russia, the Financial Times reported that the ban is forcing Moscow to make a “structural transformation” of its economy.
MCST said it was looking into converting factories into buildings that can create “worthy processors with sovereign Russian technology.”
The Trends Journal has detailed the worldwide shortage of computer chips and its impact in such stories as “Global Chip Shortage to Cost Auto Makers $210 Billion This Year” (5 Oct 2021), “Global Chip Shortage Slashes Economic Outlook” (2 Nov 2021) and “Semiconductor Stocks Riding High on Chip Shortage” (23 Nov 2021).
This century, computer chip manufacturing has migrated to lower-cost countries, leaving developed economies vulnerable to the kinds of supply disruptions the COVID War exposed. Russia is not a major customer of semiconductors and accounts for less than 1 percent of the product.
“Some companies have organized supplies from Kazakhstan,” Karen Kazaryan, the head of the Internet Research Institute in Moscow, told the FT. “Some second-tier Chinese companies are ready to supply. There is a reserve of components in Russian warehouses…but it’s not the volume they need, it’s not stable, and the prices have gone up at least twice.”
The Washington Post reported that Moscow has asked China for more support amid these sanctions and had “tense” conversations with Beijing. Beijing has balked at helping Russia evade sanctions out of fears that it could be cut off from Western semiconductor and aerospace technology, The Washington Post reported, citing an unnamed Chinese official.
TREND FORECAST: As a result of the sanctions and strong anti-Russian sentiments spread by the Western governments and the media, Moscow will be leading the anti-Globalization trend by embracing one of our Top 2022 Trends, Self-Sufficiency.
More than just home-grown chip production, Russia has the human and natural resources to be on its own and live on its own at very high levels by making what it needs rather than importing products, goods and services.
Also, with some 1,000 Western firms exiting the nation, the gaps will be filled with “Made-in-Russia products” with their national style, taste, look and flare.