Challenges the EU semiconductor industry faces — and how to address them
To strengthen the competitiveness of the sector in the EU, efforts from both industry and policy makers are required.
- Setting the scene: Overview of the EU semiconductor industry in the current economical and geopolitical development
The semiconductor industry is one of the most important sectors of the world economy. The global revenue of the sector was US$ 412 billion (around €360 billion) in 2019. Although compared with the United States and Asia, the market share of the European manufacturers is minor, around 10% of the global market, the EU semiconductor industry is globally competitive — it has a global leader of Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDM), and is also increasing its presence in manufacturing through foundries in EU member states, e.g. Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands. However, Europe is also lacking strong design capacities and fabless players. There is no fabless design company headquartered in the EU member states and the European share in this market has been decreasing from 4% in 2010 to only 2% in 2018, whereas US companies have been dominant with more than ⅔ the global market share. The EU however has a strong leadership in the manufacturing of equipment and systems for the automotive sector, a fast growing market for the semiconductor industry, currently counting for…
