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Why shortages of a $1 chip sparked crisis in the global economy

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by Bloomberg from https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com The chip crunch was born out of an understandable miscalculation as the coronavirus pandemic hit last year. When Covid-19 began spreading from China to the rest of the world, many companies anticipated people would cut back as times got tough. To understand why the $450 billion semiconductor industry has lurched into crisis, a helpful place to start is a one-dollar part called a display driver. Hundreds of different kinds of chips make up the global silicon industry, with the flashiest ones from Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. going for $100 apiece to more than $1,000. Those run powerful computers or the shiny smartphone in your pocket. A display driver is mundane by contrast: Its sole purpose is to convey basic instructions for illuminating the screen on your phone, monitor or navigation system. The trouble for the chip industry — and increasingly companies beyond tech, like automakers — is that there aren’t enough display drivers to go around. Firms that make them can’t keep up with surging demand so prices are spiking. That’s contributing to short supplies and increasing costs for liquid crystal display panels, essential components for making televisions and laptops, as well as cars, airplanes and high-end refrigerators. “It’s not like you can just make do. If you have everything else, but you don’t have a display driver, then you can’t build your product,” says Stacy Rasgon, who covers the semiconductor industry for Sanford C. Bernstein. Now the crunch in a handful of such seemingly insignificant parts — power management chips are also in short supply, for example — is cascading through the global economy. Automakers like Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG have already scaled back production, leading to estimates for more than $60 billion in lost revenue for the industry […]

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Motorcycles Sales Bounce Back Post Pandemic Slump

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by Sabrina Giacomini from https://www.rideapart.com Rising from the ashes. To say that 2020 has been an eventful year so far is an understatement. “2020, written by Stephen King” is probably the best description of this year’s events we found so far. Of course, with a pandemic forcing most of the global population into lockdown, the health crisis was bound to have an impact on the motorcycle industry. For several manufacturers, between suspended production and customers shying away from the dealers, the months of April and May 2020 have been challenging to say the least. Thankfully, with life gradually resuming, so are sales, and the numbers are bouncing back. Things Are Going Better Than Expected: An increasing number of people and publications suggest that the pandemic will encourage more people to turn to motorcycles and scooters for transportation—the perfect type of commuter for social distancing. In the U.S., buyers didn’t waste any time running for the hills—literally—as soon as COVID-19 poked its ugly head. Honda, BMW, Suzuki, and Yamaha’s North American branches reported that sales are thriving since the beginning of the year, particularly in the off-road segment. For instance, American Honda Motor Co. confirmed that motorcycle sales for May 2020 have more than doubled over May 2019—both in the road and off-road segments (+103% and +172% respectively). For BMW North America, while official sales numbers were not disclosed, the spokesperson did say that May 2020 sales were far exceeding last year’s. The European market is showing a similar, positive trend. Italian sales numbers for June 2020 show a 37-percent increase over June 2019—not even over the catastrophic month of May 2020. More bikes and scooters sold in Italy post-pandemic than last year, back when nobody had even heard of a coronavirus. A total of 39,085 motorcycles, scooters, and mopeds have

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E-scooter injuries in US jump 222% in 4 years

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According to a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study, electric scooter-related injuries in the US jumped 222 per cent between 2014 and 2018, with over 39,000 people injuring themselves. San Francisco: E-scooters may have become popular as more people are becoming aware of its benefits and convenience, but there has been a major surge in incidents of injuries related to scooters, particularly among young adults in the US. According to a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study, electric scooter-related injuries in the US jumped 222 per cent between 2014 and 2018, with over 39,000 people injuring themselves. The number of hospital admissions soared by 365 per cent to a total of nearly 3,300, according to the UCSF study. “E-scooters are a fast and convenient form of transportation and help to lessen traffic congestion, especially in dense, high-traffic areas,” Benjamin N. Breyer, MD, a UCSF Health urologist and corresponding author, said in a statement. The rise in the spate of such incidents was also due to the lack of helmets; almost a third of injuries involved some kind of head trauma. Nearly a third of the patients suffered head trauma — more than twice the rate of head injuries to bicyclists. About a third of the e-scooter injuries were to women, and people between the ages of 18 and 34 were the most often injured for the first time in 2018. “But we’re very concerned about the significant increase in injuries and hospital admissions that we documented, particularly during the last year, and especially with young people, where the proportion of hospital admissions increased 354 per cent,” Breyer added. The UCSF team had previously looked at bicycle injuries using the same data set and found scooter riders had a higher proportion of head injuries, which was also identified in

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E-bikes to rule the US EV market in next decade

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In the last couple of years, e-bike sales have been growing steadily in the US, but they still represent a small part of the overall segment in the country. Electric vehicle market in the US in the next decade will be dominated by e-bikes, claims a media report. It forecasts a total of 113 million e-bikes will be sold in the country between 2020-2023. Sales of the electric bikes in the US have grown more than eight-fold since 2014, claims the report further. In the last couple of years, sales of e-bikes have been growing steadily in the US, but they still represent a small part of the overall bike segment in the country. As the report claims, e-bike sales jumped by an incredible 91 per cent from 2016 to 2017. Also, it grew 72 per cent from 2017 to 2018 to reach $143.4 million, as revealed by market research firm NPD Group. Between 2006 and 2012, e-bikes represented less than 1 per cent of total annual bike sales. In 2013, US customers bought 1.85 lakh e-bikes, while across all of Europe, 1.8 million units were retailed. The media report quotes Jeff Loucks, executive director of Deloitte’s Technology, Media, and Telecommunications centre, who said that e-bike sales will not increase evenly across the US. He forecasts cities, in particular, will see the biggest adoption rates. As he said, “We’re seeing more people move into the urban core of cities throughout the United States. And it’s just going to put a huge load on the roadways and on public transportation systems if some of that isn’t taking place by bike.” from https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

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U.S.A. Now Has More Millionaires Than Sweden Has People

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FROM: www.FunTagger.com Tag – Good news USA continues to prove that it is indeed the “Land of Opportunity” – “The Promised Land” – a place where anyone with true enterprise can achieve “The American Dream”. The number of wealthy households in the U.S. reached a new high last year, roughly equivalent to the entire population of Sweden or Portugal. More than 10.2 million households had a net worth of $1 million to $5 million, not including the value of their primary residence, according to a survey by the Spectrem Group. That’s an increase of 2.5 percent from 2017. READ News Story at: FunTagger.com by Clicking here

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