Habeck wants to bring semiconductor manufacturing to Germany

Enlarge image

Economics Minister Habeck: "Covering our needs for microelectronics ourselves"

Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / Political-Moments

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck is trying in his new office as Federal Minister of Economics to set the first industrial policy accents - with the help of billions in subsidies.

In order to reduce the dependency on Asia for the purchase of semiconductors, production of these components is to be brought to Germany.

The Ministry of the Green Party announced that 32 projects with an investment volume of more than ten billion euros had been selected.

How high the state subsidy should be initially remained open.

Germany submitted these projects to the European Commission - the first step in approving the funding, the ministry said.

20 EU countries take part in the initiative

"The global delivery bottlenecks show that Germany and Europe have no time to lose," says Habeck.

"We have to work together to meet our needs for microelectronics ourselves and to bring production back to Germany and Europe." When it comes to chip production, Europe must become more independent of international supply chains.

In addition to Germany, 19 other EU countries with around 90 companies are involved in the project.

Germany submitted industry giants as well as small and medium-sized companies and start-ups.

The projects ranged from material production to chip design and the production of semiconductors to integration in components and systems.

According to »Handelsblatt«, the Dresden region known as »Silicon Saxony« could benefit from the plan to bring chip production back to Germany.

According to the newspaper, however, it is controversial whether a lot of tax money should be invested in new factories.

The think tank “New Responsibility Foundation” recommends promoting start-ups in a targeted manner in order to keep the overall dependency on components from Asia low.

Bottlenecks in the delivery of the semiconductors currently manufactured mainly in Asia had recently led to difficulties in several industries.

The auto industry in particular is suffering from the shortage, which is why numerous manufacturers have had to resort to short-time working, and in many places numerous cars have recently been waiting for their completion.

Even manufacturers of smartphones, computers, WLAN routers and medical devices could not produce as usual without the chips.

apr / dpa