
Middle East tensions are putting tech supply chains under pressure
From Marketplace All-in-One by Marketplace
April 30, 2026 · 8 min
About this episode
The episode discusses how the war with Iran is affecting tech supply chains and causing shortages of critical materials.
The war with Iran has upended supply chains including for materials that are critical to building the electronics we use everyday, such as a certain kind of thermoplastic, copper, and helium. We are now dealing with shortages of all of them. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jeff Janukowicz, an analyst with the research firm IDC, to learn more.
People in this episode
Host: Stephanie Hughes
Guest: Jeff Janukowicz
Topics covered
- Middle East tensions
- tech supply chains
- electronics materials
- shortages
- war impact
Keywords
- Middle East
- supply chains
- electronics
- shortages
- Iran
- thermoplastic
- copper
- helium
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: IDC
Products: thermoplastic, copper, helium
Places: Iran
More episodes of Marketplace All-in-One
- Who's getting those tariff refunds? · May 8, 2026 · 25 min
- Kimberly's final cheers on "Economics on Tap" · May 8, 2026 · 36 min
- Care to invest in the U.S. during a trade war? · May 8, 2026 · 9 min
- The context behind 115,000 new jobs · May 8, 2026 · 7 min
- Anthropic’s new, powerful allies: Elon Musk and SpaceX · May 8, 2026 · 10 min
- The erosion of the American tax base · May 7, 2026 · 25 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Marketplace All-in-One podcast page.