Costa wants to bring European semiconductor production to Portugal

On Tuesday, the prime minister said one of the purposes of his visit to South Korea is to attract investment from South Korean multinationals in European semiconductor manufacturing, and said that strategic economic autonomy does not mean protectionism.

This position was handed over to Antonio Costa at the end of a visit to one of the factories of South Korean multinational company SK Hynix, the world’s third largest semiconductor manufacturer.

The plant visited by Antonio Costa, about 60 kilometers from Seoul, was, according to South Korean company SK Hynix, an investment of about 100 billion euros and has extensive fully automated production facilities.

Together with Economy Minister António Costa Silva, Science and Higher Education Minister Elvira Fortunato and Infrastructure Minister João Galamba, the leader of the Portuguese Executive reiterated the need for Portugal to accompany the global reorganization movement. the cost of supply chains due to the current situation of instability in the international economy.

“Today, it is necessary to diversify the production chains of some essential goods, and semiconductors are fundamental to everything,” he said, before pointing as an example to the fact that the stoppage of production in China since the beginning of 2020 is due to the covid pandemic. -19, blocking a number of industries globally.

For this reason, according to the Prime Minister, Portugal sought “to maintain a dialogue with the SK group in order to attract European semiconductor production to the country.”

“In this concept of strategic autonomy that is developing in Europe, Portugal has a very clear position regarding the meaning of this concept. Strategic autonomy means independence from others, but it does not mean closing in on oneself. We want to attract foreign direct investment, namely South Korean, in order to produce in Europe what Europe needs,” he stressed.

Regarding the SK group, António Costa said that there are ongoing contacts, saying that Portugal has “very skilled human resources” in the field of semiconductors for design and already has the “biggest European plant” for the final packaging. “chips”.

“This company has strong ties to Korea and SK is now exploring investment opportunities outside of its traditional locations. This group, in addition to manufacturing in Korea, also has a presence in China and would like to diversify its manufacturing sites. For us, this is an opportunity that we should try to take advantage of,” he said.

The first of two days of António Costa’s official visit to South Korea began on Tuesday at Hanwha, a renewable energy company that already has a presence in Portugal and will expand its production in the country.

Among the “companies we are going to contact are those that have never had contact with Portugal, but others are already in an important position, such as CS Wind”, which has entered the capital of a Portuguese wind-producing metalworking company. turbines, he said.

For António Costa, Portugal “was one of the countries in the European Union that registered the most economic growth last year and has a unique opportunity in the coming years, especially with the support of EU funds, to undertake a profound transformation of its economy.”

“We are at a very important moment that we cannot miss and on which we must focus. This visit to South Korea is very focused on attracting foreign direct investment, products that can help transform our economy. For example, a semiconductor manufacturing plant opens. door to many other industries,” he added.