According to Reuters, Wolfspeed, a global leader in silicon carbide technology and manufacturing, has postponed plans to build a factory in Germany.
A spokesman for the company said that plans for the German factory have not been completely cancelled and the company is still seeking financing.
However, the spokesperson added that Wolfspeed has cut capital expenditures due to weak electric vehicle markets in Europe and the United States and is now focusing on increasing production at its New York factory.
According to reports, the company’s German factory will not start construction until mid-2025 at the earliest, two years later than the original target.
In February last year, Wolfspeed announced plans to build a highly automated, cutting-edge 200mm wafer manufacturing plant in Saarland, Germany.
According to the plan at the time, after obtaining approval from the European Commission, the construction of the factory is expected to start in the first half of 2023, starting from the production of semiconductors in 2027 and fully put into production in 2030.
Photo source: Wolfspeed, after the European Union introduced the chip bill in 2022, companies such as Intel, TSMC, Infineon, and STMicroelectronics announced plans to build new factories in Europe.
Competing with similar plans in the United States, China and Japan, the bill aims to raise 43 billion euros through public and private investment to strengthen the region’s semiconductor industry.
Reuters reported that although two years have passed, few projects are actually under construction, and even fewer national aid projects have been approved by the European Commission.
Under the EU Chips Act, public funding is provided by state and national governments, while project reviews are conducted by the EU.
As Europe’s largest economy, Germany has been supporting investment plans by Intel, TSMC, Infineon and Wolfspeed.
But so far, no project has been approved by the European Union.
, Jan-Peter Kleinhans, a chip expert at the German technology and political think tank Interface (formerly Stiftung Neue Veranwortung), said that the EU’s goal of winning 20% of the global market share by 2030 is out of reach, and given the interconnected nature of the chip market, self-sufficiency is unrealistic, and Europe is still vulnerable.
Kleinhans pointed out,”The number of projects that have been announced is impressive, but several of them will never materialize.
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