Chip shortage forced the German car factory production line to stop, the German economy minister Altmaier (Peter Altmaier) also asked Taiwan for assistance for this reason, highlighting the dilemma of the European semiconductor industry over-dependence on imports. In fact, the EU countries on the semiconductor industry behind the United States and Asia have long been a sense of crisis, and planning to build a complete semiconductor ecosystem, Altmaier optimistic expectations will drive 50 billion euros of investment.
Europe is not without its own semiconductor industry, Germany‘s Infineon (Infineon), the Netherlands’ NXP (NXP), headquartered in Switzerland’s STMicroelectronics (STMicroelectronics) have a piece of heaven. The world’s 3rd largest foundry, GlobalFoundries, has its newest factory in Europe in Dresden, eastern Germany, and ASML, the Netherlands, is an important equipment provider in the global semiconductor industry.
But regardless of the market size or the depth and breadth of the supply chain, Europe’s semiconductor industry is lagging behind the United States and Asia by a wide margin. 2019, the European semiconductor industry turnover of $40 billion, accounting for only 10% of the world, and the EU’s economic status in the world is not commensurate; the same year the United States up to 47%, South Korea 19%, Taiwan also has 6%.
According to a report released by McKinsey Consultants (McKinsey) at the end of last year, Europe’s semiconductor industry only sensors leading the world, processors, memory, artificial intelligence chips and other areas at least 10 years behind the United States and Asia, wafer foundry behind Asia 5 to 15 years.
The United States and China are planning to produce their own chips, Taiwan and South Korea to actively expand production capacity, the analyst who wrote the report Burkacky (Ondrej Burkacky) believes that Europe to catch up with the United States and Asia is not completely hopeless, but now the distance is getting farther and farther.
Europe is not a shortage of automotive chips before alerted to the shortage of related industries, but the high investment amount and potential risks have been discouraging investors. Just handed over the baton of the German industrial giant Siemens Group (Siemens), former president of Kaisa (Joe Kaeser) recently said that the integration of increasingly multi-functional chips is the key to the future of industry, Europe is now the most urgent need is the microelectronics industry, more important than software and cloud, it is clear that Europe has a sense of crisis on the backwardness of the semiconductor industry.
Chips are not only widely used in a variety of production equipment and products, in recent years, also like oil as a strategic material. Former U.S. President Donald Trump to pressure the Chinese Communist Party, many restrictions on huawei‘s access to chips, so that Europe saw the danger of technology and production dependence on foreign countries, but also stimulate Europe’s determination to build their own semiconductor supply chain. The German Electronics Industry Association (ZVEI) expert Chu Wei Wei (Stephan zur Verth) believes that the European semiconductor industry’s global market share of at least 20%, preferably up to 30%, in the negotiation table to have the capital.
In order to catch up, Germany took the opportunity to relaunch the EU’s IPCEI program last December by assuming the rotating presidency of the EU. IPCEI is an acronym for “Important Project of Common European Interest”, which refers to the creation of strategically important industries for the EU economy. IPCEI is an acronym for the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI), which refers to the creation of industries of the future that are strategically important to the EU economy. At present, in addition to automotive batteries, cloud platforms, communication technology and hydrogen economy, the semiconductor ecosystem is also under planning, and 17 countries, including France, the Netherlands and Italy, have agreed to participate.
According to the EU operating commissioner in charge of industry, Breton (Thierry Breton) estimates that, including government subsidies, Europe will have to invest a total of 20 to 30 billion euros before it is possible to increase the market share of semiconductors from 10% to 20%.
German Economy Minister Art Meyer and French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire attended the “Europe 2021” conference held by the “Handelsblatt” and other German media on February 3, and the semiconductor industry became the focus because of the shortage of automotive chips. Friedrichshafen), CEO of ZF (Wolf-Henning Scheider) expressed at the conference his hope that fabs would come to Germany and Europe to set up factories.
Lemaire said that it is necessary for Europe to reduce its dependence on the United States and Asia, to defend Europe’s own interests, without “technological sovereignty” the EU’s space for activities will be limited.
Attmeyer, who wrote to the Republic of China government in January to help solve the chip shortage, also stressed the importance of Europe having a complete semiconductor industry chain, “with its own patents, research and development and manufacturing capabilities to have a secure supply chain”. He also made a surprising prediction that the European semiconductor industry is expected to drive a total investment of 50 billion euros in the next few years.
Artemeyer also waved to the semiconductor industry outside the EU, welcoming them to invest in Europe.
Business newspaper commented that the United States to reduce dependence on Asia, to attract TSMC to Arizona to invest $ 12 billion to build a modern semiconductor plant, Europe should also learn from the United States, make every effort to allow TSMC and Samsung also to invest in Europe.
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