Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1475010
56 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2022 think we'll see consolidation efforts and some investment in expanding current PCB fabrica- tor and assembler footprints—similar to what Isola Group did. We invested $40 million into Arizona to expand our footprint and automate our facilities. I expect to see very similar activ- ity elsewhere in the United States. I don't see too many new entrants coming in. Moore: is goes back to the adage, "Success breeds success." With the tumult that exists in the South China Sea, moving forward I strongly feel this is an area where we can grow and start to pull production back to the United States and partner countries. We've done it well in the past. I love the push and pull concept there. You see where the incentives are. What can we do to incentivize that and get more capability back here? Matties: Will we see more captive facilities? Will this incentive drive captive OEMs to set up their own PCB fabrica- tion? Kelly: Both Barry and I know there are some OEMs that are doing the vertical acqui- sitions, even though it's greenfield, they say it's vertical acquisition and doing the captive approach. Many OEMs are con- cerned about the resiliency of the supply chain. Once again, COVID taught many lessons on numerous fronts and one happens to be that the global supply chain, although it can be effec- tive, can wreak havoc if you over-index, espe- cially at the end use. I think you'll see a nice hybrid approach: some captive, some consol- idation. You may even see some, I'll say Asian, competitors start building brick and mortar in the U.S. Typically, economies will evolve when they're forced into innovation and into creating new strategies to go to market. Johnson: Travis, we've already discussed a potential consolidation, but also new capabili- ties and capacity build-out in existing compa- nies. We touched on whether new companies might start up to fill into this space, and we've just mentioned captive sites. We've already identified four different ways the industry might create more resiliency in printed circuit board fabrication. How does HR 7677 enable these approaches? How do we expect to see the funding used? Kelly: We will focus on the $3 billion invest- ment from the government. From an invest- ment standpoint, the U.S. Department of Commerce is always going to look at the companies that are pro- viding that best-in-class technology, that can pro- vide the great workforce opportunities, especially in underserved areas of the country, and that will be successful from a competitive global economic standpoint. ere will be certain cri- teria relative to how that money gets spent. It will be spent on modernization, expansion, and workforce development to scale up. We need to have enough brick and mor- tar, the right workforce, and the R&D to stay on top of that technology curve to ensure the supply is both trusted and resilient. at's why this bill is so important for the domestic industry, because that $3 billion original investment is the catalyst behind beefing up the industry, ensuring that the infrastructure and workforce development exist, and it's a really nice adrenaline shot to do what we say we can do. Johnson: How do HR 7677 and the CHIPS Act work in sync? How does that happen?