For five years, Asia and North America have captured most of the investments in the technological sectors of the future, such as semiconductors and batteries, underlines a study. The new American protectionist plan (inflation Reduction Act) could further accentuate the delay taken by Europe.
by Marie Charrel
“If we do not react, the European industry will be devoured”. In the Brussels Cenacles as in the outskirts of French, German or Italian factories, the same concern rises about inflation Reduction Act (IRA) adopted by the United States. Namely, an envelope of $ 370 billion (352 billion euros) of tax subsidies and credits reserved for American green industries, and which will clearly swell their competitiveness. “This is protectionism,” sums up Thierry Breton, the European commissioner at the internal market, in an interview with the Sunday of December 4. “The risk is to attract the sides of our industry in the United States, even strategic investments that third-party companies intended to carry out in Europe.”
A prospect all the more disturbing since for five years, the old continent has already been widely preceded by the United States – and even more Asia – in terms of industrial investments. Published Monday December 12 by the Research Cabinet Trendeo, the Institute of Reindustrialisation, McKinsey and the Five Engineering Group, the “World Barometer of Industrial Investments 2022” reveals a battery of indicators confirming this dizzying observation. “The United States voluntarism in industrial matters has had very clear effects: the American part of global investments increased from 20 to 30 % between 2019 and 2022”, explains David Cousquer, of Trendeo. That of Europe remained stable, around 13 %, while that of Asia fell a little during the covid but it remains from far to the top of the podium, with just over 50 %.
“This European delay is confirmed when we look at the details of major technological sectors,” adds Gwenaël Guillemot, director of the Institute of Reindustrialisation -a association created by two engineering schools and two professional federations . Example: between 2016 and 2022, Europe has only captured 7 % of global investments in semiconductors, or 59 billion dollars (56 billion euros). North America, it has received 30 % ($ 248 billion), and Asia, 63 % (533 billion).
The barometer also unveils a classification of the sums invested by large companies of semiconductors over the same period: South Koreans of SK Inc. come first (138 billion dollars), followed by the Americans of Intel (135 billion) and Taiwanese TSMC (111 billion). No European appears at the top ten.
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