Semiconductor manufacturing is hit, too, by the disruption to sulphur, of which the Middle East accounts for about 45 per cent of global exports. Sulphuric acid is used for cleaning wafers — and is essential, too, for mining, in the leaching of copper, cobalt and nickel. All three metals are important, in turn, for making batteries for electric vehicles — and even before the Iran conflict, tech and EV demand was creating a sulphur supply squeeze.