St Microelectronics shines in Piazza Affari today after the news of new Italian funds for 292,5 million euros made available through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The stock had already seen a 5,4% rise yesterday in the wake of the rally in American technology, this morning it adds a further rise of 1,6% to Business Square, while the Ftse Mib falls by 0,57%. This morning the European Commission gave the go-ahead, on the basis of EU rules on state aid, for the disbursement of 292,5 million funds which will be used for the construction of a new plant in Catania, Sicily.
Total investment of 730 million in 5 years
The Italian-French company this morning announced that it will build a new integrated plant for the production of silicon carbide substrates Catania, to support the growing demand for SiC devices for automotive and industrial applications with total investment of 730 million euros in a span of five years, which will benefit, in fact, from the financial support of the Italian state of 292,5 million under the Pnrr.
The measure will help strengthen Europe's security of supply, resilience and digital sovereignty in the semiconductor sector, in line with the ambitions defined by the European Chips Act, the Commission underlined in a statement. “The Italian measure approved today will strengthen the semiconductor supply chain in Europe, helping us achieve the green and digital transition, and will guarantee the industry a reliable source of innovative substrates for energy-efficient chips,” he said Margrethe Vestager, Vice-President of the Commission and European Commissioner for Competition, underlining that “the measure will create opportunities for highly skilled jobs in Sicilya, while limiting possible distortions of competition".
The project will create approximately 700 jobs. Start of production in 2023
The project, when completed, will create approx 700 new direct jobs and hundreds more indirect. It is expected that the production starts in 2023 and balance the supply of SiC substrates between materials produced internally and purchased from external suppliers.
“This project is a key step in advancing ST's vertical integration strategy in the SiC industry,” underlined the Equita analysts, recalling that the Catania plant “will be the first of its kind in Europe for volume production of 150 mm SiC epitaxial substrates”.
The CEO Jean-Marc Chery explained that it is a crucial project within the company's ambition reach 20 billion and more in revenues: “The new plant will be key to our vertical integration into SiC, expanding our supply of SiC substrates at a time when we will further increase the volumes to support our automotive and industrial customers' transition to electrification and greater efficiency,” said Chery.
