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From George Moeritz
Dresden. A politically important economic date: just under two weeks before the Saxon state elections, the ground-breaking ceremony for a long-awaited billion-euro project will take place in Dresden. The symbolic start of construction of the planned ESMC European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company microchip factory will take place on August 20, a Tuesday.
The main investor TSMC from Taiwan confirmed the date when asked by sächsische.de. The Asian online business magazine Nikkei had previously mentioned the date. TSMC stated that the project is on schedule. The groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for August 20. Construction should begin towards the end of the year.
The factory, which will employ around 2,000 people, is to be built just north of the Bosch chip factory near Dresden airport. According to earlier information, the building and machinery will cost around ten billion euros, of which the German state will pay around half. The investors are TSMC (70%), Infineon, Bosch and the Dutch NXP Group, which emerged from the semiconductor division of Philips (10% each).
Two architectural designs to choose from
TSMC wrote that the ground-breaking ceremony was a "significant milestone" for the companies involved. The Nikkei report neither confirmed nor denied the information that high-ranking guests from Taiwan would be attending the ceremony. The report states that TSMC Group CEO C.C. Wei will come to Dresden at the head of a company delegation. Equipment manufacturers, material suppliers and important customers will also be invited. Government representatives will also be present. The ground-breaking ceremony is an important election campaign date for Saxony's state government.
© Archive photo: Ronald Bonß
The billion-euro project in Dresden is headed by Christian Koitzsch, who previously organized the construction of the neighbouring Bosch microchip factory. Koitzsch presented the logo at the Silicon Saxony Day in Dresden in June. of the ESMC joint venture - and two architectural designs for investors to choose from.
The excavation pit for the main building alone will be 200 meters long, 200 meters wide and ten meters deep, said Koitzsch in Dresden. Up to 5,000 construction workers will be working there every day. Microchip production is scheduled to begin in 2027. Originally the tobacco company Philip Morris had reserved the property, to produce tobacco sticks (heets) for his electronic mouthpiece called Iqos. But he gave up his Dresden construction project. At the beginning of July, the first 15 Taiwanese employees were due to move to Dresden to help build the TSMC Group's first European semiconductor plant.
In Japan, TSMC will soon be building the second factory after the first
In Asia, ceremonies around new factories are often celebrated with many people. In February, TSMC opened its microchip factory in Japan. Partner companies are also financially involved there, including Sony. At the inauguration, 16 people wearing white gloves stood next to each other and cut a ribbon into individual parts. Construction of the Japanese chip factory began in April 2022 and the first silicon wafers will be processed into microchips at the end of this year. The partner companies have since announced plans to build a second factory in Japan, with production due to start at the end of 2027.
Production of 40,000 wafers per month has been announced for Dresden. The microchips are produced on round silicon wafers, and the number of chips per wafer can be in the thousands, depending on requirements. The finest structures on the chips from the Dresden factory are said to be 12 to 28 nanometers, which is sufficient for the requirements of European industry, such as car manufacturers. In Japan, 6/7 nanometers are also to be achieved in some cases.
The US company Intel wants to build two neighboring factory modules in Magdeburg at the same time, with a total of 3,000 jobs, which, according to earlier information, should also be ready in 2027. While TSMC only carries out orders for other electronics companies, Intel produces for its own needs, but also wants to attract customers from the industry.
