When the Federal Chancellor invites you to a photo session, important decisions have usually already been made.

It's no different in Berlin than in Brussels, Buenos Aires or Ensdorf an der Saar.

This Wednesday, shortly after his trip to South America, Olaf Scholz also took Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck to the town of 6,500 in Saarland.

The presence of the top government should remove any doubt: what is happening here is groundbreaking, far beyond the Saarland.

Bernd Freytag

Business correspondent Rhein-Neckar-Saar based in Mainz.

  • Follow I follow

With the support of the German automotive supplier group ZF, the US semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed wants to build a chip factory.

The Americans don't want to produce just any chips, but the latest generation of semiconductors, so-called silicon carbide chips, on the site of a former coal-fired power plant.

With SiC chips, electrically powered cars should drive longer and charge faster.

Although the technology is still young, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz have already made long-term supply agreements.

The third and largest plant for such semiconductors to date is now to be built in Saarland: the “highly automated” factory and development center is to cost between 2 and 3 billion euros – the parties involved did not give official figures – but in the final stage it will only create up to 1000 jobs.

Nevertheless, the factory is considered an important building block in order to achieve the conversion of the German automotive industry towards electromobility.

According to reports, the federal government is to contribute at least a quarter of the investment costs, but the corresponding approval from the EU for the "important project of European interest" is still pending.

The country reportedly bought the site and made it available to the Americans.

ZF wants to invest a "three-digit million amount" - in a joint research center with Wolfspeed and in the factory itself.

An earlier takeover attempt by Wolfspeed failed

In return, the Friedrichshafen group - with more than 150,000 employees one of the largest automotive suppliers in the world - not only gets access to the chips in demand, but also shares in Wolfspeed.

Measured against the Wolfspeed stock market value of 9.5 billion dollars, however, the participation should not be significant.

Years ago, Infineon tried to take over Wolfspeed, but failed because of the US government's veto.

At the presentation of the plans in Ensdorf, Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger said that after the US subsidy program “Inflation Reduction Act”, worth billions, the competition had become tougher.

With the help of the federal government, however, Saarland has shown that "we can survive in this competitive battle."

ZF CEO Holger Klein said the initiative strengthens the resilience of European supply chains.

And Chancellor Scholz emphasized the "experience of upheaval" in Saarland and said that after the good old days, a good new time can now begin.

The factories can contribute to supplying the European industry with semiconductors.

European state aid law must become even more agile and “flexible in terms of time”, the EU proposals point in the right direction.