Europe runs behind China and the United States

“If we don’t react, European industry will be devoured. » In the circles of Brussels as in the surroundings of the French, German or Italian factories, the same concern rises about theInflation Reduction Act (IRA) adopted by the United States. Namely, an envelope of 370 billion dollars (352 billion euros) of subsidies and tax credits reserved for American green industries, and which will significantly boost their competitiveness. “It’s about protectionismsummarizes Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market, in an interview with Sunday newspaper of December 4. The risk is to attract parts of our industry to the United States, or even strategic investments that companies from third countries were planning to make in Europe. »

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A prospect that is all the more worrying since for the past five years, the Old Continent has already been well ahead of the United States – and even more so Asia – in terms of industrial investment. Published Monday, December 12 by the research firm Trendeo, the Institute of Reindustrialisation, McKinsey and the engineering group Fives, the “World Barometer of Industrial Investments 2022” reveals a battery of indicators confirming this dizzying observation. “The proactiveness of the United States in industrial matters has had very clear effects: the American share of global investments has increased from 20% to 30% between 2019 and 2022”, explains David Cousquer, of Trendeo. That of Europe remained stable, around 13%, while that of Asia fell a little during the Covid-19 but it remains by far at the top of the podium, with just over 50%.

“This European delay is confirmed when we look at the details of the major technological sectors”, adds Gwenaël Guillemot, director of the Institute for Reindustrialization – an association created by two engineering schools and two professional federations. Example: between 2016 and 2022, Europe captured only 7% of global investments in semiconductors, or 59 billion dollars (56 billion euros). North America received 30% ($248 billion), and Asia 63% ($533 billion).

The barometer also reveals a ranking of the sums invested by the major semiconductor companies over the same period: the South Koreans of SK Inc. come first (138 billion dollars), followed by the Americans of Intel (135 billion ) and the Taiwanese of TSMC (111 billion). No European appears in the top ten.

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