On 31 May 2024, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, and the Minister of Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, present at the Stmicroelectronics headquarters in Catania, announced a multi-year investment program of 5 billion euros for the Catania site with financial support of around 2 billion euros from the Italian State, with an employment impact of 3000 new qualified jobs.
Pietro Nicastro, general secretary of FIM-CISL Sicily, comments: “An announcement of extraordinary importance that makes Catania and Sicily central in the panorama of the semiconductor industry in Europe”. The entire cycle integrated into a single industrial complex which relaunches our city in the sphere of highly technological and industrialized sites and with notable employment implications for the territory, 3000 jobs announced”.
The goals for the new plant are to start production in 2026 and ramp up to full capacity by 2033, with full production of up to 15,000 wafers per week.
The new factory to be built in Catania features a high-volume production facility for 200mm silicon carbide chips, for devices and power modules, as well as for testing and packaging. The new factory will join the one already established last year, which involved the production of silicon carbide substrates with an investment of more than 700 million euros and 700 jobs. The two facilities will form ST’s Silicon Carbide Campus, under the European Chips Act, realizing the company’s vision of a fully vertically integrated manufacturing facility for the mass production of SiC at a single site. The complete chain of the silicon carbide chip will be created and for which particular attention is foreseen in the European Chip Act. In fact, this material is suitable for useful technologies linked to the ecological transition and for the green economy, such as for the electric car, and offers large global market spaces. Furthermore, the Catania plant in question is currently the only one of its kind in Europe, called “first of kind”, which according to European rules allows an exemption on state aid, in fact the funds come from the PNRR.
“This investment just announced – continues Nicastro – in the Catania site of STMicroelectronics makes Etna Valley re-emerge after the vanished dream of the 12-inch factory in Catania more than 15 years ago. This investment will help develop and implement training and skills to increase the pool of skilled workforce. The 3,000 new jobs will be a lifeblood for an area that has been tormented by high unemployment rates for years.”
“In this regard – concludes Pietro Nicastro – we must all row in the same direction so that these investments are made within the established timescales”.
