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State chip. Here is how the USA, China, Japan and beyond are pushing on semiconductors

2 years ago babelfish

State chip. Here is how the USA, China, Japan and beyond are pushing on semiconductors

How states move to develop the microchip industries

State chip. Because semiconductors, which the industry of the post-pandemic world has rediscovered hungry for, are a 'matter of state'. They are not only in mobile phones, in the PlayStation 5 and in modern cars, but also in the tools of the defense sector: depending on Asia and, in particular, on China, can therefore be dangerous, and not only because entire whims could depend on its whims. industrial sectors. This is why more and more states are pushing for “zero km” indoor production.

THE ITALIAN IPCEI

The Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), or 1.7 billion euros of resources allocated to the Fund of the same name managed by the Mise, fall within this sphere, albeit only slightly. At the end of the summer, the Department of Economic Development activated two to support Italian companies in the strategic battery sector, for a total value of 1 billion euros, plus 700 million for the microelectronics sector.

Sifting through the documents of Economic Development it turns out that the IPCEI Fund is divided into:

IPCEI Batterie 1 : € 473.35 million to support projects and activities aimed at introducing highly innovative and sustainable technologies along the entire value chain of lithium-ion batteries, with the aim of improving the duration characteristics, loading, safety and environmental compatibility of new products in line with the principles of the circular economy;
IPCEI Batterie 2 : € 533.6 million to support projects and activities aimed at research and development of the production of raw materials, cells, modules and systems of large-scale electric batteries for the Italian and European industrial sector;
IPCEI Microelectronics : € 325.85 million, in addition to the € 410.2 million already planned, to create and develop innovative microelectronic technologies and components in the sectors of energy efficient chips, power semiconductors, smart sensors, advanced optical equipment and composite materials.

At the beginning of the year, having registered the deafening silence of the Maneuver on the matter (which closely concerns the automotive sector), it ordered an integration of the allocations provided for in the 2022 Budget law, bringing the funds destined to support to 2.2 billion the country's strategic supply chains. The aim is "to carry out at least 40 new investment projects throughout the national territory in the sectors: automotive, microelectronics and semiconductors, metal and electromechanics, chemical-pharmaceutical, tourism, design, fashion and furniture, agro-industry and environmental protection".

The initiative will actually materialize through Development Contracts that will draw on the 450 million envisaged in the Maneuver to which to add 750 million euros for investment projects linked to the digitization, innovation and competitiveness of the Made in Italy supply chains and 1 billion euros for strengthen investments, also in research and innovation, in the main ecological transition chains, also favoring industrial reconversion processes with the construction of 'gigafactory' to create batteries and photovoltaic panels and for wind power ".

SEMICONDUCTIVE, THE EU SAYS YES TO STATE AID

State aid. In the original spirit of the Treaties they were seen as blasphemy in the church. Then the pandemic arrived and the EU allowed them, above all to save the flag companies (in reality they had already been tolerated also to save the credit institutions in crisis). Now they are wanted by the Commission itself, which put 43 billion euros on the plate for the Chips Act.

"With the European Chips Act we want to make the EU an industrial leader in this strategic market, we have set ourselves the goal of having 20% ​​of the global market share of chip production in 2030, now we are at 9 %, but during this period the demand will double, which means quadruple our efforts, ”said Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen . In detail, EU state aid for chips will amount to 15 billion euros in further private and public investments by 2030, on top of the 30 billion euros of the Next Generation Eu, from the Horizon program and from national budgets. These funds will be accompanied by additional long-term private investments.

Crucial will be the creation of advanced production facilities, which, as the number 1 of the Commission said, "entail enormous initial costs". “Therefore – admitted the president of the EU executive -, we are adapting our rules on state aid, under strict conditions. This will allow, for the first time, public support for 'first of their kind' European production facilities for the benefit of all of Europe ”.

The community news concerns us closely, given that the American Intel would like to build a plant in Italy (in reality we are competing for it with France and Germany) and in all likelihood it will go to the State that will offer the best conditions, not only in terms of work. , bureaucratic and legal certainty, but also in terms of incentives.

CHIPS FOR AMERICA ACT

Remarkably, the Old Continent's aid package came before the similar measure pushed by the Biden administration. Just recently Il Sole 24 Ore took stock, recalling that the OK of the House of Representatives arrived on February 4, recalling that the Senate had voted its own law in June and therefore now the two houses of Parliament will have to try to standardize the texts , “Smoothing out non-trivial differences, also in terms of public spending. The version of the Chamber has over three thousand pages: the most important chapters foresee approximately 52 billion dollars in subsidies for the national semiconductor industry and 45 billion to strengthen the supply chains of high-tech products ”, reads the Confindustria newspaper.

THE STATUS CHIPS OF THE SOL LEVANTE

Japan is also lagging behind: according to the Nikkei newspaper, the government will propose a vast aid plan by March 2024. A strong injection of capital is expected in this regard, not unlike those launched in the Covid emergency. At the moment the technicians would be working on the list of strategic sectors to help. Then the interested companies will present investment plans and R&D desires.

According to an estimate by the Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER), Japan's GDP in the last month of last year grew by only 0.1 percent after adjusting for inflation. The official data from the Japanese Cabinet Office should arrive on February 15. Japan's growth in the October-December 2021 quarter was 7.1 percent on a quarterly basis.

MADE IN CHINA 2025

And then there is of course China, where the chips are already of the state, given that the state has stakes in all 'private' realities. While in the West the Chinese giant was mocked thinking it limited itself to manufacturing and copying renowned brands, Beijing had set its sights on chips and rare earths, grabbing large plots of land on the African continent. In this way, it has everything it needs to churn out repeatedly semiconductors and EV car batteries, crucial in the world of tomorrow. In addition, according to the Made in China 2025 plan, the percentage of expenditure for research and development must go from 0.95% in 2015 to at least 1.68% and 80% of components must be, for the precisely, made in China.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/chip-di-stato-ecco-come-usa-cina-giappone-e-non-solo-spingono-sui-semiconduttori/ on Sun, 13 Feb 2022 06:14:05 +0000.