Organization: there is a trend of setting up semiconductor factories in Europe, and the supply of local related materials may be tight.
CTOnews.com, November 29, according to a report from Kuiheng, a wave of semiconductor factories has been set up in Europe. Intel, TSMC and Samsung have announced one after another that they will build wafer generation factories there. But agency Techcet warns that this will lead to increased pressure on the local semiconductor materials supply chain.
PexelsCTOnews.com, the source of the picture, learned that Intel announced this year that it would spend US $88 billion to build factories in Europe, including two wafer factories in Germany (producing 2 nm process chips), packaging plants in Italy and production expansion in Ireland; at the same time, TSMC also announced plans to set up factories in Germany; Samsung also announced plans to double wafer production capacity in Europe, targeting the automotive chip market.
Large-scale new wafer plants require a strong chemical and material supply chain, but at present the chemical supply chain in Europe is extremely unstable. The underlying reasons include: the energy problem caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine this year; the low willingness of local chemical and gas suppliers to invest in equipment, resulting in insufficient supply; the logistics situation has also become a hidden worry; and the European environmental regulations are more stringent, and the supply chain is slow to follow up.
In the long run, at the same time, the raw material supply chain must be invested simultaneously, otherwise the fab will have to find more alternative sources for key raw materials. Techcet pointed out that hydrochloric acid, gas, sulfuric acid, hydrofluoric acid, ammonia and isopropanol (IPA) for semiconductors in Europe will be at high risk of chain disconnection in the future.
Techcet believes that wafer plants under 16 nanometers will expand rapidly in the next six years, and for relevant chemical suppliers, the establishment of new plants can make semiconductor chemicals more quickly. Dan Tracy, senior director of Techcet, believes that if market conditions permit and financial subsidies such as joint investment are in place, European chemical suppliers are expected to consider investing in setting up factories and setting up new plants to meet the needs of advanced process chemicals.
