President Joe Biden recently visited SK Siltron CSS's newest production plant in Bay City, Michigan. During his visit, he toured the facility and talked with several of the employees. In addition to President Biden, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Rep. Dan Kildee joined the tour, led by SK Siltron CSS CEO Jianwei Dong, where they learned from CSS workers about the silicon carbide wafers produced on site.
Last year, SK Siltron CSS announced that it would invest $300 million and create up to 150 jobs over the next three years to provide manufacturing and R&D capabilities of advanced materials for electric vehicles.
"We saw it during the pandemic when overseas factories that make these chips shut down because of the pandemic, the global economy began to comes to a halt, driving up costs for families,” said President Biden during his speech.
"In fact, one third of the core inflation last year is because of the price of automobiles. They couldn’t get the computer chips so they couldn’t make the automobiles, so the price of the fewer automobiles that are being made went way up. They had to shut down. Workers on the shop floor got laid off. Prices went up because cars were in short supply. The reason I pushed for the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act is because I knew we could turn things around. I’ve never been more optimistic about America than I have been in the last several years. And I mean that sincerely."