Northeast England's Semiconductor Nightmare
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- čas přidán 25. 09. 2021
- Let's do something different this time. For this video, I am going to shift focus from Asia to talk about the United Kingdom.
Northeast England was once a heavy industry powerhouse. But when those industries declined, the region struggled to come up with its next growth industry.
So when Siemens Semiconductor pledged in 1995 to invest over a billion pounds for a semiconductor fab, the area was overjoyed. The Queen showed up and everything. But the plant never had a chance. Siemens closed it after just 15 months of operation. An aborted attempt to revive the plant fell through.
What happened here? In this video, we are going to look at semiconductor manufacturing's failure in North Tyneside.
Errata:
- Another currency mishap - GBP and USD are inverted in the early video parts. I will from now on just say the USD to keep myself sorted
- Bundespost, rather than Bundesbank. Bundes-Brain fart.
- DRAM chip is measured in bits and not bytes, so it's not megabytes, but megabits.
Links:
- The Asianometry Newsletter: asianometry.com
- Patreon: / asianometry
I hope you enjoyed the video. Like and subscribe, and all that dance. And if semiconductors are your game then check out the Global Semiconductors Playlist:
Manufacturing in the UK has always been neglected. It's considered far more respectable to get rich by counting the wealth that others create than by getting your hands dirty by making something that will sell for a profit.
As a Brit who works in the semiconductor industry (albeit not in the north east of England) that was a seriously impressive video. Your summary at the end was spot on too! Thank you for all your hard work @asianometry.
The UK pound has never been worth less than the US Dollar . So reversing the pound dollar values would be correct .
A good report, but every time you give £/$ prices, amounts etc, you set them the wrong way round
Being a British resident and seeing the very long decline in UK manufacturing and the weakness and economic volatility that comes with that and the fuel it provides for wealth inequality, it really stood to me when you said about the lack the lack of indigenous business leaders. Yep! 100% this. Everything government do is too woo the exploiters, rather than nurture grass roots industrial entrepreneurs. We face barriers!
Can I suggest that instead of mentioning different currencies, you only mention the directly relevant one and display it and conversions on screen? I would help me understand the data and I feel it would improve the flow of your script.
I worked there during 1998. Loved every minute. Nothing was mentioned about the uncertainty during that time until the day Dr. Schumacher came in and closed the place. There was continued investment and machines were still being qualified as I worked my last shift in metrology. I still work in the North East and drive past the site every day. Nothing left of the FAB, only the office building remains. Very sad indeed, still think what could have been
FYI it's pronounced "dee-ram"
Thank you for the very interesting and informative video. One tiny point, you got the GBP to USD conversions inverted I think. £1 billion is more than US$1 billion, not less.
DRAM = "dee-ram"
I can relate to this!!
As a German who studied at Durham University in the north east of England this was very sad to watch.
Really like all your stuff (especially this one since I just started my apprenticeship at Siemens) but I think you made a small mistake. The "Bundesbank" is the German central bank responsible for issuing currency, while the "deutsche Post" is comparable to US postal service and was (and to a degree still is) responsible for communications infrastructure in Germany.
I’m from Hartlepool but left when I was 19 for a more prosperous region with better potential. The Siemens story is very similar to the Samsung CRT TV and Microwave plant that was built just outside Hartlepool in the late 90’s to much fanfare, subsidies and benefits.
As a native of this area I would like to say thank you for that well made and informative video
I helped to build it worked on an effluent treatment plant on the roof treating the wash from the ultra clean rooms filtration system. Graphite pencils were banned an a molecule could cause a chip to fail. Great video 👍
I got screwed by Siemens also. They purchased the factory I worked at. Shortly after we celebrated our 100th year in business and we were told things would continue as they had. Two years later they announced that they would be closing the facility.
as a colombian, im fascinated with this industry, even thought there is not a company of semiconductor in my country
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was part of the process engineering team back in 96/97 that set the place up and then shut it down in 99. Some good friends and memories made along the way.