Newsletter: February 2023

What’s Happening at Aurora Circuits:

We’re all about the EV wave, as it pertains to PCBs. Heavy copper is often needed in charging station and EV power boards. There are many discussions about moving the entire US automobile sector to electric in an expedited time frame. In light of this, we are including an excerpt from our recent blog exploring this topic. You can also find the entire article here:

Without a readily available and quick power source, some believe EVs will continue to be a niche market. These charging stations are steadily being installed in locations across the country, and with the support of $7.5 billion in from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a momentous effort is underway to increase stations tenfold by 2030. An organized push to install charge points across the country is not to increase demand; rather to satiate it. PwC released a report from 2022 estimating an increase of US EVs from a reported 3 million in 2022 to 27 million in 2030 and 92 million by 2040 (https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/industrial-products/library/electric-vehicle-charging-market-growth.html). Will a tenfold increase in charge points be enough to keep up with the projected EV adoption wave? We can’t say for sure, but if PwC is to be believed, it looks like the charging dilemma needs to be solved, and quickly.

The economic turmoil of the last few years continues as differing opinions remain regarding the overall health of the US and European manufacturing sectors. Job growth remains strong but manufacturing data paints a different story: industrial production declined in December 2022 for the third consecutive month. It’s difficult to say for sure; however, “most expect the recession to start in the first half of 2023 and to be both shallow and short” with the US economy expected to grow just 0.5% in 2023 and 1.4% in 2024. China, on the other hand, is expected to grow 4.7% this year and 5.2% the next. There is hope that, due to strong demand in the US and Europe, this recession will have the lowest unemployment metrics on record.

Source: (https://emails.ipc.org/links/0123EconomicReport.pdf)

As we have mentioned in previous newsletters and blog posts, the coming recession (a majority of economists are in agreement that it is unavoidable at this point) will not “act” as those in the past due to the artificial and cooperative shutdowns across the globe in 2020. We are still reeling from these heavy handed policies in the form of supply chain disruptions, hyper-inflation and worker shortages. Let’s hope that the recession is “artificial”, as well.