2023-10-21 22:08:00
At the beginning of October, the European Commission unveiled a list of four strategic sectors which must be better defended against rival powers. This is the case for semiconductors. The Netherlands is today the only European country to produce these electronic chips. But a new factory will be built in Dresden, Germany, and the city’s university will train its future executives in partnership with the Taiwanese giant TSMC.
The image is remembered: production lines stopped in the automobile industry during the Covid pandemic. The cause: the shortage of stocks of semiconductors coming from Taiwan via China. For the European Union, it was an electric shock, but a saving shock, if we are to believe Angela Stanzel of the German Foundation for Science and Politics. “ It started with the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine hit the nail on the head. In Brussels and in European capitals, we realized that we had to act in a more geostrategic way, diversify our economic relations with China and thus reduce our risks. “, she explains.
The construction of a semiconductor factory in the heart of Europe therefore comes at the right time. Taiwanese electronic chip giant TSMC, which controls more than half of global production, will invest nearly 4 billion euros in the German federal state of Saxony, with the creation of 2,000 jobs.
Problem: there is a lack of qualified personnel. “ This lack of qualified personnel in the semiconductor industry is felt all over the world, and even in Taiwan. This is also the reason why TSMC is setting up in Dresden; its expansion in Taiwan is now compromised. In Dresden we are already training students, but there are not enough of them to meet the needs of the industry in the future », explains Josef Goldberger, coordinator of a brand new exchange program between the Technical University of Dresden and Taiwan.
Germany, global precursor in the semiconductor market
Hence the idea for the project from the Technical University of Dresden and the company TSMC. In the medium term, around a hundred German students will participate each year. Applications are already piling up at Josef Goldberger’s office in Taipei. “ The proportions of this cooperation with TSMC will make Germany the global forerunner. The students will come to Taiwan from February 2024. They will be trained in two phases: first, they will spend four months at the university, then, they will go to the TSMC training center for two months and then to their factory of Taichung, similar to the one that will be built in Dresden », he says.
Such international partnerships are also part of the toolbox proposed by the European Union. The idea being to better arm the continent to defend its interests against China. “ This means that we will no longer rely exclusively on China. Taiwan produces the semiconductors, but for the delivery of these chips to Europe, we depend on Chinese roads and ports. Furthermore, Taiwan is threatened by China and we are considering the possibility of war. In this case, maritime trade would collapse. So we need to become more independent. This requires a direct and closer relationship with Taiwan, but also our desire to gain a foothold in this technology of the future. » assures Angela Stanzel.
As the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, explained, it is a question of “ end the era of naivety and act like a true geopolitical power “. The students of Dresden must become the new bridgeheads of this strategy.
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