Commentary: Xi Jinping’s Taiwan ambitions threaten China’s rise

By:
On:
In: Asia

Like the Japanese before the second world war, the Chinese complain that the US is trying to strangle their economy. America denies any such intention, arguing that its restrictions on tech exports are narrowly aimed at China’s war-fighting capability.

But even if the US had a broader plan to thwart Chinese economic growth, any such efforts would probably be unsuccessful.

IMPRESSIVE ECONOMIC RISE

Like most countries, China has its share of problems. But the country’s economic rise remains impressive. This year China is projected to become the world’s largest exporter of cars, displacing Japan.

China is doing particularly well with the electronic vehicles that will dominate the future. Bill Gates argues that American tech-export bans are likely to be counter-productive, encouraging China to develop its own capabilities much more rapidly.

The Microsoft founder told me recently: “I don’t think the US will ever be successful at preventing China from having great chips.”

The CEOs of some of the West’s most powerful companies, such as Tim Cook of Apple, have made it very clear that they have no intention of walking away from China.

As a self-proclaimed Marxist, Xi should understand that global political power flows from economic power. China does not need to win a shooting war to expand its international power and influence. Trade, aid and investment will do the job without any of the attendant risk and bloodshed.

Continue Reading

Biden taps communicator to replace Milley

By:
On:
In: Asia

US President Joe Biden has reportedly picked the charismatic US Air Force General Charles Q Brown to replace the all-but-disgraced chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Army General Mark A Milley.

Brown will become Biden’s top military adviser, whose mission will be to help achieve an unambiguous victory of Ukraine over Russia and deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

YouTube video

[embedded content]

US Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q Brown Jr speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine on Ukraine and China threats at The Brookings Institution and The National Press Club in Washington, DC.

The decision by President Biden to pick Brown over a traditional military strategist such as Marine Commandant General David H Berger underlines what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has shown the world: Communication defeats brute military strength.

Brown, a black fighter pilot, never hesitates to recount how differently he was treated versus an archetype, Tom Cruise, in the Hollywood blockbuster Top Gun/Maverick and notes that in real life, only 2% of US fighter pilots are black.

“I’m thinking about my Air Force career where I was often the only African-American in my squadron or, as a senior officer, the only African-American in the room. I’m thinking about wearing the same flight suit with the same wings on my chest as my peers, and then being questioned by another military member, ‘Are you a pilot?’” Brown said in an interview with Defense One.

Brown, unlike Milley, is a maverick, having become the first black to be Chief of Staff of the US Air Force and then the second chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after the late US secretary of state General Colin Powell.

Brown matches his words with actions. He’s currently organizing a monument dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, the black fighter aces of World War II later immortalized by George Lucas’ film Red Tails, at the Ramitelli Airfield in Campo Marino in the southern Italian region of Molise and the political heartland of the now pro-American, pro-Ukraine Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

YouTube video

[embedded content]

Tuskegee Airman William T Fauntroy Jr speaks to Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass on Tuskegee Airmen and his and brother, Pastor Walter Fauntroy’s, experiences with Dr Martin Luther King on October 26, 2018.

The Tuskegee pilots are a living symbols of the sacrifice and heroism black Americans have given to the United States in all its wars. Living Tuskegee Airmen include William T Fauntroy, brother of a key Martin Luther King supporter, the Reverend Walter Fauntroy, while the late Emmett John Rice was father of former White House national security adviser and now domestic policy adviser to Biden, Susan Rice. 

Not only does Brown front USAF recruiting ads but he shakes up the chain of command by acting as an “undercover boss” by engaging in no-holds-barred conversations with enlisted ranks whenever he visits US Air Force bases, to the great chagrin of the accompanying brass.

Brown is fully aware that he must be effective in the near term in Ukraine and Taiwan to prevent the US arms industry from pushing Congress to balloon military spending to levels not seen since World War II.

Major US defense groups such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamic have spared no expense on lobbying Congress that the United States needs to re-create a new “industrial military complex” – producing arms for arms’ sake as criticized by the late president Dwight Eisenhower – so that in the next two years the military will have enough weapons to challenge China and defeat Russia in a new world war.

YouTube video

[embedded content]

Leonardo DRS CEO William J Lynn III filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass discussing opportunities for defense collaboration in light of the Russo-Ukrainian war at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on April 5, 2023.

Such a military buildup risks in effect bankrupting the United States, but would be little help to Ukraine’s efforts to defeat Russia this year and probably not arrive in time for an eventual ground war with China.

Instead, Brown can use his power as presidential adviser to have President Biden order defense companies either to acquire private-sector Ukrainian arms companies or create joint-venture companies, as Germany’s Rheinmetall AG did with Ukraine’s state defense holding Ukroboronprom, which envages an initial US$200 million investment to build and repair Panther KF51 battle tanks in Ukraine.

The White House and Congress can effectively force other European arms companies dependent on US Department of Defense contracts such as Italy’s Leonardo SpA and the UK’s BAE Systems to shorten the supply chain by acquiring Ukrainian defense and dual-use companies.

South Korea also indicated its willingness to join forces with US arms companies to produce weapons for the Ukraine war and a military conflict involving China and North Korea during President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit with President Biden on April 26.

L3 Harris chief executive officer Chris Kubasik is also looking at taking a page from Microsoft president and vice-chairman Brad Smith in making a significant Ukraine investment to put public pressure on US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairwoman Lina Khan to approve its $4.67 billion acquisition of US rocket=fuel supplier Aerojet Rocketdyne. The takeover already has the full approval of the Pentagon.

This year Microsoft announced that it had signed a wide-ranging partnership agreement with Kiev-based Boosteroid, the world’s third-largest cloud gaming company, as part of its proposed $70 billion takeover of Activision.

YouTube video

[embedded content]

[Microsoft president and vice-chairman Brad Smith speaks to Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass on its $70 billion takeover of Activision under antitrust scrutiny by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington on February 11, 2023.

In fact, Brad Smith is preparing a trip to Kiev joining Boosteroid CEO Ivan Shvaichenko to highlight the transformational partnership agreement to the world’s media and also highlight the arbitrary opposition to the Activision takeover by Lisa Khan and her “allied” authority, the UK Competition Market Authority (CMA). On Monday the European Union approved Microsoft’s takeover of Activision.

Microsoft’s footprint with Activision/Xbox in the gaming industry would be half the size of its nearest rival, Tokyo-based Sony unit PlayStation. PlayStation has spent millions upon millions to lobby Khan and the CMA to block the merger.

It will be to everyone’s benefit if General Brown can fully exploit his talent as a communicator – in the same way Zelensky has used his gift as a political satirist to unite his country – to advise Biden on how to defeat Russian aggression in Ukraine and prevent any land war with China.

Peter K Semler is the chief executive editor and founder of Capitol Intelligence. Previously, he was the Washington, DC, bureau chief for Mergermarket (Dealreporter/Debtwire) of the Financial Times and headed political and economic coverage of the US House of Representatives and Senate.

Continue Reading

Commentary: Employees must resist the pressure to go to work when unwell

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND?

During the new wave of cases, some companies took additional precautions such as encouraging employees to work from home. But still, there are some employees who feel like they must go to work even when sick. 

What’s causing this pressure to work when unwell? Are such employees afraid of losing their jobs or their clients? Is it a sign of a toxic workplace culture that values attendance over health and well-being? 

There are multiple reasons. Some workplaces have a culture of presenteeism, where employees are expected to work like robots, never take a break, and put work before everything else. Employees who follow this may get a pat on the back, a gold star, or a cookie, while those who don’t may get a stern scolding, a dirty look, or a pink slip.

High workload and deadlines are another reason. Some workplaces have so much work that employees can’t afford to take a sick day. For example, some employees may have to juggle multiple projects, tasks, or clients and may feel like they’re on a treadmill that never stops. They may also feel like they’re playing a game of Tetris that keeps getting faster and harder.

Sometimes, the pressure comes from within. Some employees feel pressure from themselves to go to work when they’re sick. Like Michael Jordan, who played basketball with the flu and won the game, some may have a strong work ethic or sense of duty that makes them want to do their best and impress others. Or maybe they just really love their job and can’t stand to miss a day.

Continue Reading

Police arrest 30 in ‘Sua’ network raids

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia
Wasawat: Has fled overseas
Wasawat: Has fled overseas

Thirty people were arrested in a three-day crackdown on a criminal network allegedly linked to “Inspector Sua”, a former officer accused of involvement in a multi-billion-baht gambling network, authorities said on Monday.

Police and other law enforcement agencies raided 39 locations across the country at the weekend and detained 30 people wanted on charges of running a secret organisation, gambling operation and colluding in money laundering.

National police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas said police had made significant progress in their efforts against the network since operations against it first began in February.

A total of 57 people were arrested in four operations during this time, and assets worth more than seven billion baht were seized, including land plots covering 1,298 rai, 15 luxury cars worth 52.8 million baht and digital currencies worth 100 million baht from the network, he said.

Nineteen people who were implicated were believed to have fled overseas, he said, adding that warrants were issued for the arrests of the asset holders, who were the network’s key members.

According to the police chief, the land assets included durian orchards in Chanthaburi, a golf course in Kanchanaburi, seaside land plots in Phuket and a penthouse in Bangkok.

Pol Col Wiwat Jitsophakul, from the Crime Suppression Division, said the network linked to “Inspector Sua” was behind one of the country’s largest gambling operations. He said more than 60 firms were allegedly involved, with seven directly providing gambling services and running online gambling sites. The network’s revenue was estimated to exceed 10 billion baht last year.

“These companies report no profits but hold massive assets. This corresponds with our information the gambling proceeds are transferred through mule accounts and turned into assets,” he said.

Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, the commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), said police were coordinating closely with authorities in other countries in tracking down “Inspector Sua” who had fled overseas.

“Inspector Sua”, or Pol Lt Col Wasawat Mukurasakul, was a police officer attached to the public works division under the Office of Logistics of the Royal Thai Police. His alleged involvement in the online gambling network was exposed by former massage parlour tycoon Chuvit Kamolvisit.

Continue Reading

Beijing cools Taiwan issues ahead of G7 Summit

By:
On:
In: Asia

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has softened its stance on Taiwan matters and highlighted peaceful reunification in advance of the 49th G7 Summit, which will be held in Japan’s Hiroshima May 19-21.

Chinese media also stress that China will face a huge crisis if it has to divide its army to fight against the US, Japan, South Korea and Australia at the same time in a war in the Taiwan Strait.

Wang Huning, one of the seven standing committee members of the politburo of the CCP’s Central Committee, explained the party’s new strategy on Taiwan in an internal meeting on May 10. He stressed that the mainland will deepen its economic cooperation with Taiwan and increase, step by step, cross-strait exchanges.
 
Beijing’s softened tone is a big contrast to the People’s Liberation Army’s actions of deploying warplanes, naval vessels and military drones to the Taiwan Strait early this month when 25 US defense contractors attended the Taiwan-US Defense Industry Forum in Taipei on May 3.

Wang Huning is head of the party’s Central Policy Research Office and Xi Jinping's close aide. Photo: Communist Party of China
Wang Huning is head of the party’s Central Policy Research Office and Xi Jinping’s close aide. Photo: Communist Party of China

“It is necessary to fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the party’s overall strategy for resolving the Taiwan issue in the new era, and firmly grasp the dominance and initiative in cross-strait relations,” Wang said in the annual Taiwan Work Conference on May 9 and 10.

“We must adhere to the one-China principle and the ‘1992 Consensus’ to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations,” he said. “We must uphold the concept of ‘one family on both sides of the strait,’ respect, care for and benefit Taiwan compatriots, strengthen the systems and policies that improve the wellbeing of Taiwanese people and continue to deepen cross-strait integration and development.”

Punditocracy’s warnings

Significantly, over the past weekend, several articles remarkable for their frankness have circulated freely on the normally strictly censored Internet in China, promoting the drawbacks of having a Taiwan Strait war.

On Sunday a Jiangsu-based writer published an article titled, “I don’t support reunification by force! A war will only exhaust the people and waste money and not benefit the general public.”  

“Military reunification will not only cause casualties but also bring irreparable losses to Taiwan’s economy and society,” he says. “Taiwan is our brother province, not our enemy. The peaceful resolution of cross-strait relations is in the fundamental interests of the people on both sides of the strait, and it is also one of the necessary conditions for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

The writer adds: “Against the backdrop of intensified disputes in the South China Sea, we need to focus more on striving for a peaceful solution to the issue, rather than falling into the vortex of military confrontation. More importantly, the Taiwan issue is the Chinese people’s own issue, and we should not leave the problem to external forces to solve it.”

He says military reunification will only bring more hardships and losses to China’s relatives, friends and compatriots in Taiwan. He says China should adopt a more ingenious approach, through cooperation and negotiation, to let the people of the Taiwan region accept its love and kindness, and let them become friends and partners of the mainland.

Multi-front combat

“Once we start to unify Taiwan by force, we need to prepare for the worst – facing multi-front combat,” a Zhejiang-based columnist writes in an article published Sunday. “In case the US, Japan, South Korea and Australia take actions together, we will have to fight on all four sides from the waters near the Okinawa Island and in the Bohai Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

“Our main concern is the US has already deployed forces to many military bases around the Taiwan Strait and keeps delivering weapons there,” he says. “The US troops in Okinawa are among the biggest threats to us.”

He says it is likely that the US will dispatch its aircraft carrier strike force and nuclear submarines to the Taiwan Strait one day and pose a great threat to China.

“Due to the unstable situation on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea may not send a large number of troops to the Taiwan Strait but it can still send some there and then start a military action on the peninsula,” he says. “If Australia and the US join hands, it will be a huge crisis for us in the South China Sea region.”

He concludes that although China has the ability to fight on all four sides, it needs to further boost its military strength.

It is not common that articles such as this are permitted to be published on the heavily-censored Chinese internet. As of Monday, they have remained accessible. 

Blinken’s China visit

After the spy balloon incident broke out in late January, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a Beijing trip he had scheduled for early February. After US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on April 5, Blinken proposed to visit China in April but was rejected by Beijing.

US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said on May 2 during a webinar organized by The Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank, that the US wants to resume more communication channels with China and hopes that the Taiwan Strait will remain peaceful going forward.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang (left) and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns Photo: Twitter, China’s Foreign Ministry

On May 9, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told Burns in a Beijing meeting that China will only talk to the US if the latter stops pressing Taiwan issues, avoids overreacting in cases such as the recent balloon incidents and quits imposing new sanctions on the Chinese technology sector. 

The Qin-Burns meeting was followed by Wang’s speech on May 9-10 and a ten-hour meeting between National security adviser Jake Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna on May 11. 

After the Wang-Sullivan meeting, the White House said the two sides had engaged in candid, substantive and constructive discussions on key issues regarding US-China relations, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the cross-Strait dispute, among other topics. Xinhua reported that Wang reiterated China’s stance on Taiwan issues during the meeting. 

Wu Xinbo, a professor and dean at the Institute of International Studies and director at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University, said in an interview on May 12 that whether Blinken will be invited to visit Beijing will be determined by Washington’s stance in the G7 Summit. 

“Since the balloon incident, the Sino-US relations have been deteriorating due to the US’s various measures, including Taiwan and trade matters,” Wu said. “China is now asking the US what it will do to stop the further deterioration of the two countries’ relationship.”

“A series of actions recently taken by the US and its allies created a negative impact on the security situation surrounding China and in the Asia Pacific region and affected our core interests and Taiwan matters,” he said.

He said he had told Burns, who visited Fudan University in late April, that if the US uses the G7 Summit to criticize China, it should not hope that Sino-US relations will improve this year.  

On May 12, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that G7 finance leaders had discussed whether developed countries should diversify their supply chains and reduce their over-reliance on China. He said emerging and low-income countries could come into play.

Prior to this, the media reported last month that US President Joe Biden was set to sign an executive order that would restrict American companies and private equity and venture capital funds from investing in China’s microchips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology and clean energy projects and firms. Biden was planning then to announce these investment curbs before the G7 Summit and ask US allies for support.

Read: China ‘will talk,’ but only if US changes its tune

Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3

Continue Reading

Indonesia’s EV dream crashing on a lack of lithium

By:
On:
In: Asia

JAKARTA – Delivering a speech on the sidelines of last year’s G20 Summit, President Joko Widodo pointed to lithium as the one crucial element Indonesia still needed to make electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Turning, he gestured towards Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese seated near him and observed: “That man has lithium.”

Nickel-rich Indonesia may be on the cusp of an EV battery revolution, but it still lacks a guaranteed supply of lithium for it to become a reality by 2025, the year Maritime Affairs and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Panjaitan has targeted for the first battery plant to go into operation.

“Australia is the best candidate to develop the EV battery industry because half of the world’s lithium is found in the country of the kangaroo,” Panjaitan told the Australia Indonesia Business Council in Perth last February as Indonesia began its search for a supplier.

According to a well-placed government source, however, the pioneering US$1.1 billion plant, a joint venture between South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, LG Chemical, POSCO, Huayou Holding and the state-owned Indonesia Battery Corp (IBC) known as HKML, is already facing major headwinds.

While a shortage of lithium appears to be the major impediment in the longer term, sources close to the HKML consortium blame much of the current delay on inevitable “regulatory issues” that have arisen since the project broke ground in Karawang, east of Jakarta, in September 2021.

Land acquisition problems in the fast-growing industrial suburb were partly responsible for a two-year delay to the Chinese-funded Jakarta-Bandung fast-rail enterprise, which saw costs balloon from $6 billion to $8 billion and leave the government scrambling to find the balance.

Karawang is also the site of the Lippo Group’s $20 billion Meikarta mega-project, which has been stalled for years over allegations of corruption involving company executives and Bekasi Regency officials.

Advertised as a “city of the future,” Meikarta’s planned 92 tower blocks cover 500 hectares, adjoining the new Kertajati international airport, the Trans-Jakarta Expressway and the new rail link, which finally becomes operational in August.

Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia reportedly flew to South Korea recently in a bid to shore up the Korean venture that Widodo has said underscores his commitment to downstream processing and “escaping as soon as possible from the trap of raw material exports.”

Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia makes a point. Image: Twitter

Lahadalia may be regretting his comment at the time of the ground-breaking: “They (the South Korean firms) only need to bring in the capital and technology and make the market, while the government is taking care of permits and incentives in line with the president’s directives.”

Nothing has been said publicly about the delay, but the venture into EV battery making is a step up in added value from the previous focus on manufacturing stainless steel from class two nickel deposits in the three processing centers in Sulawesi and Maluku.

Indeed, HKML’s Karawang plant is part of a planned $9.8 billion integrated supply chain for lithium-ion battery production, from nickel mining to smelting, refining, precursor and cathode manufacturing.

Although the LG operation may have come to a halt for now, top Korean steel maker POSCO is proceeding with a $441 million nickel smelter at the Weda Bay, Maluku, Industrial Park to produce an annual 47,000 tonnes of nickel intermediates for one million electric vehicles.

POSCO and Ningbo Liqin, China’s largest nickel resources trader, are also embarking on a separate facility in South Sulawesi, which will eventually produce 115,000 tonnes of mixed nickel-cobalt hydroxide precipitate (MHP) a year, enough for 1.2 million battery packs.

MHP is the main feedstock in the production of nickel sulfate, a high-speed acid-leach (HPAL) process crucial to manufacturing lithium-ion batteries that use nickel-rich cathodes.

Last year, in a trend Indonesia may be compelled to follow, POSCO announced plans to invest $4 billion in a new lithium mine in Argentina; in 2021, it also bought a 30% stake in West Australia’s Ravensthorpe nickel operation.

With Indonesia needing an annual 70,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide to produce cathode material, IBC has raised the possibility of state mining holding company MIND-ID buying into an Australian lithium mine to ensure a long-term supply.

“The (LG) deal was made with a lack of forward thinking,” says one analyst, pointing to a sharp increase in worldwide lithium consumption from 86,100 tonnes to 121,500 tonnes in 2022. “Demand has strengthened, and Indonesia is at the back of the queue.”

The International Energy Agency predicts worldwide shortages by 2025 and a recent Credit Suisse report figures that demand could treble over the next two years, with the US looking for alternative suppliers to reduce its dependence on China.

Work is under way at the Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery Co in Nanjing, which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses. Photo: AFP

In a departure from a historic trading trend, particularly in coal and iron ore, home-grown lithium companies are looking to refine the metal in Australia, which would make the export market even tighter despite a spate of new global discoveries.

Australia’s Association of Mining and Exploration Companies recently warned that a failure to look beyond its key advantage as a rich source of lithium – and the opportunities further down the supply chain – could cost the nation dearly.

According to the most recent US Geological Survey data, Australia has lithium reserves of 3.8 million tonnes, second only to Chile (9.3MT) and ahead of Argentina (2.7MT), China (2 MT) and the US (1MT). Total world reserves are put at 26MT.

Australia is currently the world’s largest lithium producer, with last year’s output totaling 61,000 tonnes, or nearly half of global production as trade in all EV battery ingredients – and their price – ramped up exponentially.

About 96% of Australia’s lithium exports last year went to China, which accounts for 58% of global lithium processing capacity and nearly 80% of global lithium battery manufacturing capacity – a dominance that worries US strategists.

Chinese firms are partners in two of Australia’s largest mines, including Greenbushes, the world’s premier hard-rock lithium deposit south of Perth, which Sichuan’s Tianqi Lithium partly owns with North Carolina-based Albemarle and two Australian companies.

Indonesia’s problem lies in the fact that Greenbushes and West Australia’s three other top producers are already committed. Only diversified conglomerate Wesfarmers, a retail giant making its first entry into mining, may offer hope of a long-term contract.

But its Mount Holland mine, lying 445 kilometers east of Perth, has also run into obstacles caused by inflation, rising costs and labor shortages – a common story in Australia’s lithium mining and processing sector.

According to recent company statements, it won’t be until 2026 that the mine begins producing 45,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium hydroxide through a Tianqi-run refinery at Kwinana, near Perth.

The mine contains an estimated 94.2 million tonnes of proven and probable reserves and is now not expected to be producing an annual 50,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide from a Tianqi-run refinery at Kwinana, near Perth, until 2026.

Trucks rumbling along at the Mount Holland lithium mine. Image: Twitter

Industry sources say the Indonesians have already had initial discussions with Wesfarmers and Chilean partner Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM). It may also be looking to Liontown’s Kathleen project and Core Lithium’s Mt Finnis venture near Darwin, in the Northern Territory, as other potential suppliers.

“Australia and Indonesia are logical partners,” says Jennifer Matthews, a former diplomat and now national president of the Australia-Indonesia Business Council. “It would be really good for the benefit of both our countries.”

“But the challenge for Indonesia is to find potential suppliers because it has become such a competitive space,” she told Asia Times. “Lithium is a hotly sought-after mineral, so it depends on whether they can come up with the right sort of deal.”

Indonesia wants to produce three million lithium batteries a year by 2030; each will require about 8 kilograms of lithium, which translates into 240,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide a year for two million electric cars and 13 million electric motorcycles.

Yet Bureau of Statistics figures show Indonesia’s lithium oxide and hydroxide imports in 2022, mostly from Chile and China, amounted to only 138 tonnes, less than in 2021 and only slightly more than in 2019 and 2020.

Panjaitan told the Australians that Indonesia’s “dream” of becoming the world’s EV battery king depends on partners “who trust and support each other and offer better regulations and more open investment.”

“We’re on our way to making a major transformation,” he said. “Even though many countries still underestimate us, not a few appreciate Indonesia’s big change because it has been able to survive global economic turmoil.”

The minister announced recently that Indonesia has proposed a limited free trade agreement (FTA) with Washington so that local companies in the EV battery supply chain can benefit from tax credits in shipping nickel products to the US.

It would be similar to a fast-tracked US trade deal with Japan last March covering EV battery minerals, including lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt – all part of US efforts to reduce its dependence on China for key components.

Under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, new guidelines for EV tax credits require a certain value of battery components to be manufactured or assembled in the US or by a free trade partner.

President Joko Widodo (third left) during a visit to the PT Obsidian Stainless Steel (OSS) production line, during a series of events for the inauguration of the China-invested nickel smelter factory PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry (GNI) in Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi, in a file photo. Image: Twitter / Doc Palace / Agus Suparto

Indonesia has been trying to use its vast nickel reserves in eastern Indonesia to attract investment from international battery and EV manufacturers since the ban on ore exports, the forerunner to looming bans on bauxite and copper concentrate.

Panjaitan has so far been unable to entice EV-maker Tesla, but earlier this month Ford signed a final investment deal with Brazil-owned PT Vale Indonesia Tbk and China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt to build a $4.5 billion HPAL smelter in Morawali, Central Sulawesi.

Producing 109,000 tonnes of hydroxide precipitate a year for a series of EV battery plants, it is Ford’s first investment in the Indonesian mining sector and forms part of its global grand plan to manufacture two million EVs by 2026.

Continue Reading

Samsung to jump-start Japan R&D, chip production

By:
On:
In: Asia, Technology

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics plans to establish a central research and development (R&D) facility and will likely build a semiconductor packaging test line in Japan, initiatives that come against the backdrop of a recent rapid improvement in bilateral ties and the ongoing US-driven “decoupling” of the global tech industry.

According to Japanese and Korean press reports, the world’s top producer of memory chips and second-ranking integrated circuit (IC) foundry plans to unify its R&D effort at its Yokohama Research Institute under the name Device Solution Research Japan (DSRJ). Samsung Electronics previously maintained half a dozen research facilities in Japan.

As reported by Pulse, DSRJ will hire Japanese as well as Korean researchers, an arrangement that should facilitate more interchange with Japanese suppliers and customers.

Pulse quoted an unidentified Korean business official as saying, “In the past, there was a perception that we have nothing more to learn from Japan, but Japan is still at the forefront of advanced technology. Samsung Electronics’ new integrated R&D center in Japan may signal the company’s intention to restore its link with Japan.” 

That is – or was – a popular sentiment in South Korea that had lots to do with historical resentment, but very little to do with commercial reality. Samsung and SK Hynix, South Korea’s other large semiconductor maker, have long depended on Japanese equipment and materials suppliers – and vice versa.

Over the past five years, Tokyo Electron – Japan’s largest and the world’s third-biggest supplier of semiconductor production equipment – has made nearly 20% of its sales in South Korea.

Japanese makers of photoresists and other chemicals used in the semiconductor manufacturing process – products in which they have dominant global market shares – also have substantial business in South Korea.

This became a political issue in 2019, when the South Korean Supreme Court ruled that Japanese companies must compensate Koreans forced to work for them during World War II.

Japan responded with export restrictions, causing massive inconvenience and disruption for both Korean customers and Japanese suppliers. Those restrictions were lifted in March of this year on the occasion of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to Tokyo.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (R) shakes hands with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) prior to the start of their meeting on March 16 at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence. Image: Twitter

According to DigiTimes, “Samsung stated that this organizational restructuring [of R&D in Japan] has nothing to do with the improvement of governmental relations between South Korea and Japan.”

In other words, it was reportedly a business decision grounded firmly in the company’s assessment of market conditions and opportunities.

In addition, Samsung is reportedly planning to build a test line for the development of new semiconductor packaging technology in Yokohama at a cost estimated at more than 30 billion yen (US$220 million).

This is an area in which Japanese equipment and material makers are particularly strong. Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s leading IC foundry, opened a 3D IC packaging R&D center in Japan’s Tsukuba Science City almost a year ago. More than 20 Japanese materials and equipment companies are working with TSMC in Tsukuba.

Construction of the packaging facility should start this year, according to press reports, with operation scheduled to begin in 2025. Several hundred people are likely to be employed. Like TSMC and US memory chip maker Micron before it, Samsung is expected to receive generous government subsidies to build semiconductor production facilities in Japan.

Samsung did not provide comments for the story but the amount of detail and the fact that it was front-page news in Japan suggests that there is something to it.

Last December, Samsung established an AVP (Advanced Package) Business Team within its Device Solutions Division. Working with its Japanese suppliers at a prototype development facility in Yokohama would be a logical next step.

If TSMC needs to be in Japan to get the most out of Japanese packaging technology, Samsung probably does as well. Samsung’s foundry business is still only one-third the size of TSMC’s.

This would be Samsung’s first semiconductor production facility in Japan and a major step forward in the collaboration between the two countries’ semiconductor industries. Sony is a customer of Samsung Foundry but production is done in Korea. TSMC, Sony and Toyota Group components maker Denso are building a semiconductor factory in Kyushu, Japan.

Advanced packaging aims to overcome the physical limits of miniaturization – to go beyond Moore’s Law, the prediction made in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the density of transistors on an integrated circuit would continue to double roughly every two years.

In Samsung’s words:

“Through advanced Heterogeneous Integration, which connects multiple chips horizontally and vertically, more transistors can be planted on a single chip (or package) and offer performance that is more powerful than the sum of all parts.”

“Our focus areas are the development of next-generation 2.5D and 3D advanced package solutions based on RDL, Si Interposer/Bridge and TSV stacking technologies.”

These technical terms are defined as follows:

  • 2.5D package: A package which integrates a single-layer logic semiconductor and multi-layer memory semiconductor together on a substrate.
  • 3D package: a package in which multiple logic/memory semiconductors are vertically integrated.
  • RDL (Redistribution Layer): Advanced packaging technology that places an extra metal layer in between a small and large circuit board to integrate the two.
  • Si Interposer/Bridge: The microcircuit board inserted between the IC chip and PCB, which physically connects the chip and board by acting as the mid-level wiring.
  • TSV (Through Silicon Via): Advanced package technology that grinds the surface of the chip, drills hundreds of microscopic holes and connects the electrodes that vertically penetrate the holes in the top and bottom chips.

Samsung’s advanced packaging also includes chiplets, which are “small, modular chips that can be combined to form a larger, more complex system-on-a-chip (SoC).

They offer a number of benefits over traditional monolithic chips, including improved performance, cost savings, and design flexibility,” according to industry information service anysilicon.

Along with die shrinks to 3nm and below, advanced packaging is the leading edge of semiconductor production technology.

South Korean President Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are scheduled to meet during the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, scheduled to be held May 19-21. More information about Samsung’s investments and other economic collaboration between South Korea and Japan may be announced at the event.

Follow this writer on Twitter: @ScottFo83517667

Continue Reading

GBS Asia Awards 2023 Honors Organisations and individuals in the GBS industry

By:
On:
In: Technology

12th installment of awards sees 70% increase in nominations
6 new categories with judging by independent panel from M’sia & abroad

Global Business Services (GBS) Malaysia, a chapter of PIKOM, recently held its annual award ceremony to celebrate companies and individuals that found success using the GBS models. 
“Despite the effect of COVID-19 on the…Continue Reading