The EU could become as dependent on China for lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells by 2030 as it previously was on Russia for energy before the war in Ukraine unless it takes strong measures, a paper prepared for EU leaders said.
The document, obtained by Reuters, would be the basis of discussions on Europe’s economic security during a meeting of EU leaders in Granada, Spain, on Oct. 5.
Worried by China’s growing global assertiveness and economic weight, the leaders are to discuss the European Commission’s proposals to reduce the risk of Europe being too dependent on China, and the need to diversify toward Africa and Latin America.
Photo: Reuters
The paper said that because of the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources like solar or wind, Europe would need ways to store energy to reach its goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
“This will skyrocket our demand for lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells and electrolyzers, which is expected to multiply between 10 and 30 times in the coming years,” said the paper, prepared by the Spanish presidency of the EU.
While the EU has a strong position in the intermediate and assembly phases of making electrolyzers, with a more than 50 percent global market share, it relies heavily on China for fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries, which are crucial for electric vehicles.
“Without implementing strong measures, the European energy ecosystem could develop a dependency on China by 2030 of a different nature, but with a similar severity, from the one it had on Russia before the invasion of Ukraine,” it said.
According to the European Commission, in 2021, the year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU took more than 40 percent of its total gas consumption, 27 percent of oil imports and 46 percent of coal imports from Russia.
Ending most energy purchases from Russia caused an energy price shock in the EU and a surge in consumer inflation, forcing the European Central Bank to sharply raise interest rates in a move that has curbed economic growth.
Lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells were not the only areas of EU vulnerability, the Spanish presidency paper said.
“A similar scenario could unfold in the digital-tech space,” the document said. “Forecasts suggest that the demand for digital devices such as sensors, drones, data servers, storage equipment and data transmission networks will rise sharply in this decade.”
“The EU has a relatively strong position in the latter, but it shows significant weaknesses in the other areas,” it said.
By 2030, this foreign dependency could seriously hinder the productivity gains that the European industry and service sector urgently require, and could impede the modernization of agriculture systems essential to addressing climate change, it said.
NXP Semiconductors NV expects its first automotive-grade 5-nanometer chip built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to become available for automakers within one-and-a-half years at the earliest, following demand for better computing performance and energy efficiency for connected vehicles, a company executive said yesterday. That would mean a significant upgrade from the 16-nanometer technology NXP adopted in its existing series of microprocessors. NXP chief technology executive Lars Reger made the remarks during a media briefing yesterday in Taipei. The latest updates came after NXP unveiled its plan to source 5-nanometer capacity from TSMC in 2021. This is Reger’s first trip to
EVADING US CONTROLS? ‘These surveillance chips are relatively easy to manufacture compared to smartphone processors,’ a source said about HiSilicon’s components A Huawei Technologies Co (華為) unit is shipping new Chinese-made chips for surveillance cameras in a fresh sign that the Chinese tech giant is finding ways around four years of US export controls, two sources briefed on the unit’s efforts said. The shipments to surveillance camera manufacturers from the company’s chip design unit, HiSilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體), started this year, said one of the sources and a third source familiar with the industry supply chain. One of the sources briefed on the unit said that at least some of the customers were Chinese. Huawei unveiled new smartphones in the past few weeks that
CENTRAL BANK: The consumer price index would grow while core CPI is set to move forward at a milder rate, the governor said, adding that the GDP forecast is down The central bank yesterday kept its policy rate unchanged for the second straight quarter, saying that a rate pause would help support the economy, as consumer prices have moderated and would return to the 2 percent target next year. “The board gave unanimous support to a policy hold, although some members voiced concern over lingering inflationary pressures and called for close monitoring,” central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a media briefing after its quarterly board meeting. The consumer price index (CPI) would grow 1.83 percent next year, while core CPI after stripping out volatile items would advance a milder 1.73 percent,
SLUMP: The electronics, machinery and traditional industries posted the largest decline in the past year; overall, sectors showed gains over the previous month Taiwan’s industrial production index decreased 10.53 percent year-on-year to 91.38 last month, falling for a 15th consecutive month on an annual basis, as weak global economic growth continued to weigh on end-market demand and investment momentum, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday. The industrial production index gauges output in Taiwan’s four main industries: manufacturing, electricity and gas supply, water supply, and mining and quarrying. Last month’s decline was the smallest contraction since March when the index dropped 16.03 percent from a year earlier. On a monthly basis, the index rose 7.28 percent, marking a second straight month of improvement,
RSS