President Joe Biden meets with executives on global chip shortage
President Biden is meeting with executives to discuss the global chip shortage. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi Clarence E. Brown has experienced union strikes, plant shutdowns and layoffs due to parts shortages during his 47 years working for General Motors. But Brown, president of a United Auto Workers local chapter in Kansas, describes the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage that’s costing automakers billions and forcing massive temporary layoffs as more “disappointing” than previous work stoppages, because he feels it could have been avoided. “I’m not a corporate multibillionaire, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that there’s something wrong with this,” he told CNBC. “I’ve been with General Motors for over 40 some years, and in all 40 some years, they’ve taught me one thing: Where is ‘Plan B’? If ‘A’ is not working, where is ‘Plan B?’ Something has to be done so this will never happen again.” The White House held a virtual CEO Summit on Monday where President Joe Biden met with executives from the auto, tech, biotech and consumer electronics industries to discuss the chip shortage. Participants included CEOs Mary Barra of GM, Jim Farley of Ford Motor and Intel’s Pat Gelsinger. After the meeting, GM, Stellantis and a lobbying group for the Detroit automakers issued statements saying they were grateful the Biden administration held the meeting and was making the issue a priority. They said they looked forward to working Biden to resolve the shortage. Gelsinger told Reuters on Monday that Intel is in talks to start producing chips for carmakers within six to nine months. The Detroit automakers and Intel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Auto executives started warning of a chip shortage late last year. Those warnings quickly turned into temporary plant closures for the auto industry, causing automakers to temporarily layoff tens of thousands of U.S. autoworkers for varying periods of time since the beginning of the year. Brown’s roughly 2,000 hourly workers at GM’s Fairfax Assembly plant were among the first to lose work when the factory was idled by GM in early February due to the parts shortage. “I just hope that those people in charge, including the president, can come up with a plan so that this won’t happen again,” said Brown, who met Biden during a campaign visit to the plant in 2019. “It’s not just a General Motors or Ford or car thing. This has affected other areas of this country as well.” But experts and company officials say there’s little to nothing Biden can do to force chipmakers, a majority of which are in Asia, specifically Taiwan, to allocate more to the U.S. automotive industry. Biden could try to pressure them. He has also backed proposals for tax incentives to U.S. manufacturers to make the critical parts in America to avoid future shortages. “One of our hopes would be that we could come out of the meeting with a path and a road map to getting back to fulfilling 100% of automotive semiconductor orders and have some real insight and transparency into what that timeline might look like,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents GM, Ford and Stellantis NV. » Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC » Subscribe to CNBC Classic: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCclassic Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide. The News with Shepard Smith is CNBC’s daily news podcast providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories. Available to listen by 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT daily beginning September 30: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/the-n... Connect with CNBC News Online Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/ Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC Follow CNBC News on Facebook: Follow CNBC News on Twitter: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC https://www.cnbc.com/select/best-cred... #CNBC #CNBCTV
