PRESS RELEASE |
July 19th 2024 |
Release of two important ICOS reports for the study of international semiconductor cooperation
The ICOS – International Cooperation on semiconductors – project, started on January 2023, aims at providing a comprehensive analysis of the semiconductor landscape in Europe and leading semiconductor countries, identifying areas for potential cooperation and proposing opportunities for bilateral or multilateral research collaborations. By depicting the geopolitical landscape of the current international semiconductor chessboard, two newly published reports provide in-depth insights into the challenges that stakeholders must address to strengthen semiconductor industries.
The report on “Economic analysis of the EU and International semiconductor ecosystem” coordinated by DECISION Etudes & Conseil, provides a unique semiconductor economic landscape analysis in the EU27 but also eight key countries: the US, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, India, Singapore, and Malaysia. It gives a special attention to the overall environment, highlighting strategic objectives, covering not only the semiconductor markets of these countries, but also the production in terms of location of employees, factories, and market shares of companies by ownership nationality, international trades, overview of key investments, strategies, and policies from governments.
Additionally, the report includes an analysis of the positioning of the EU and the other ICOS countries within the semiconductor-based photonics ecosystem. This analysis covers the entire semiconductor value chain, from raw materials to equipment and manufacturing, across the family of semiconductor products, from advanced processors to innovative functionalities, and across end-user segments, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of semiconductor countries.
The goal was to portray the current situation in semiconductors, to identify the EU’s economic and industrial strengths and weaknesses, strategic dependencies, market opportunities and opportunities for cooperation.
The White Paper “Generic Challenges and International Cooperation in the Semiconductor Field – A European Perspective” coordinated by Ghent University, outlines 15 key challenges of the semiconductor field and the main risks they pose to industry development: Manufacturing Fabs, Process Flow, Foundry Access, Second Source, Disruption, Competition, Workforce, R&D Capability, IP Core, Supply Chain Goods, Supply Chain Services, Investment, Export restrictions, Environmental Impact and Social and Governance.
For each challenge, the report discusses the main attributes of the challenge and proposes modalities of international cooperation to address them and mitigate the challenge. It provides a complete analysis of the areas where Europe needs to improve and enhance its competitiveness in the international scene. The deliverable also prioritizes these challenges based on a survey conducted among European experts, with the results available at the end of the paper.
The whitepaper is written from a European perspective, but, as a result of the generic nature of the approach, its findings have a relatively universal significance. Furthermore, the report may act as a source of inspiration to international stakeholders in the semiconductor field.
These two reports are publicly available on the website on https://icos-semiconductors.eu/public-reports/. As a part of the ICOS project, they will foster further collaboration with key international stakeholders and help the European Union in shaping its strategy toward the semiconductor industry.
