In its search for sorely needed talent, German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG is looking as far as Guatemala, but the rise of the far-right at home risks making the move unappealing and harming the industry.
The semiconductor group has plans for a new 5 billion euro (US$5.4 billion) factory in eastern Germany — and it is not alone.
Backed by huge government subsidies, US chipmaker Intel Corp is planning to build a plant in Magdeburg, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) is to put down roots in Dresden.
Photo: EPA-EFE
For all the region’s advantages — a good location and an established industrial base — its politics could yet be a drag.
In Saxony, which already hosts the biggest concentration of chipmakers in Europe, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is polling more than 30 percent ahead of European and regional elections later this year.
Success for the AfD risks “holding back our growth potential,” said Frank Boesenberg, head of regional industry lobby group Silicon Saxony.
Chipmakers in Saxony are to have 25,000 jobs to fill by 2030, while the local working-age population is to shrink by 300,000, the group estimates.
“There are too few young people in the region,” Boesenberg said. “We need immigration.”
However, the anti-immigration politics of the AfD could put off potential recruits and damage the industry.
“A policy of isolation is a threat to prosperity,” Infineon CEO Jochen Hanebeck said on professional social network LinkedIn.
As it stands, the large majority of the industrial capacity to produce semiconductors — used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones — is in Asia.
However, recent supply disruptions and rising geopolitical tensions in the region have prompted a rethink in the US and Europe about depending on imported chips.
The result has been a concerted effort to relocate supply closer to home, leading to a flood of investments into areas like Saxony.
About 68 percent of German managers fear the country could become less attractive to foreign workers if the far-right gains in strength, a poll by the IW Koeln think tank showed.
In January, revelations by investigative outfit Correctiv that AfD members discussed a mass deportation plan at a meeting sparked a wave of protest in Germany.
However, companies such as Jenoptik AG, a producer of optical components for chipmakers, had been warning well before the controversy that the AfD poses a risk to business started.
If the industry is no longer able to find “the right people,” the impact could be felt on the bottom line, Jenoptik chief executive Stefan Traeger told German weekly Der Spiegel in December last year.
A lack of suitable workers was “the biggest challenge” facing Germany’s industry, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck said earlier.
The country would need 5 million more workers by 2030 to cover the shortfall in all sectors, IW Koeln said.
At Infineon’s new factory in Dresden, which should begin production in 2026, the group expects to hire 1,000 new workers.
Foreign workers are to be an important “building block” on the way to achieving that target, Infineon human resources head Tom Geyer said.
The group’s workforce in Dresden already has representatives from a few dozen nationalities.
To find potential new hires and bring them to Germany, Infineon has signed deals
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS