Micron Technology Inc on Tuesday announced it would open a semiconductor plant in upstate New York, promising a long-term investment of up to US$100 billion and a plant that could bring 50,000 jobs to the state.
The company was lured to the Syracuse area with help from a generous set of federal, state and local incentives, including up to US$5.5 billion in state tax credits over 20 years.
The announcement comes after US Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer had pushed for Idaho-based Micron and the company’s CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, to consider upstate New York for its factory. It also comes months after Congress passed the US$280 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act, which set aside US$52 billion to bolster the semiconductor industry.
Photo: Bloomberg
“An investment of this scale in the US is simply not possible without significant government and community support,” Mehrotra said at the announcement.
In addition to tax credits tied to investment and job creation, New York has pledged US$200 million for road and infrastructure improvements where the plant is being built in suburban Clay and US$100 million to a “community benefit” fund. The state would also review supplying the operation with low-cost power.
The federal bill was aimed at bolstering US competitiveness against China and avoiding another chip shortage like the one that derailed the automobile and technology industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Chips are essential to our economy, and if we were to lose the ability to manufacture chips here in the United States, it would be a severe, both economic security and national security risk,” Schumer said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This will be the most advanced memorychip manufacturing facility in the United States and probably the world. And it’s located in a place that will really benefit from it.”
The company plans to invest up to US$100 billion over the next 20-plus years to construct the project, with the first investment of US$20 billion planned by the end of the decade. The deal is also expected to bring more than 9,000 jobs to Micron, and officials believe it could also bring close to 40,000 other ancillary jobs to the region, from suppliers to contractors, officials said.
Micron has several chip manufacturing plants around the world, including in Singapore and Taiwan. The company announced last month that it would invest US$15 billion through the end of the decade on a new semiconductor plant in its hometown, which the chipmaker said would create 17,000 US jobs.
Manish Bhatia, Micron’s executive vice president of global operations, said that New York was selected in large part because it has a history of semiconductor development.
New York is home to 76 semiconductor companies, Schumer said.
“There is an ecosystem of other manufacturers, research institutions,” Bhatia said. “We believe we can funnel a lot of that talent” to the Syracuse area, including military veterans.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
RSS