It will be a long time before a fab settles in Mexico

Several media outlets from Mexico and the United States reported that during Joe Biden’s visit to Mexico a few days ago, he asked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to promote policies that allow our country to benefit from the boom that the US industry will have. semiconductors or microchips. They also pointed out that the US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, in a visit to Mexico City last year, said that our country could benefit if microchip factories were installed here or processes such as assembly, packaging or testing were carried out here. of said products. Moreover, she assured that the so-called CHIPS Law approved last year by the US Congress will create jobs and opportunities for the US and Mexico.

Based on these reports, there is no shortage of those who assure that semiconductor factories or fabs will soon be set up in Mexico.

Those who affirm this ignore what is involved in building and equipping one of these factories.

For example, an Intel fab takes three years to complete, costs $10 billion, and requires 6,000 construction workers. Another example, the two plants that the Taiwanese TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) is building in Arizona will cost 40 billion dollars, one of the largest foreign investments in US history.

According to the World Fab Forecast Report, which can be viewed at semi.org, “in 2023 alone, semiconductor companies are building a record 33 factories, 10 more than the plants that began construction last year and nearly twice as many. the projects started in 2020 and 2019”. None of them in Mexico.

The same report states that “the semiconductor industry will spend more than 500,000 million dollars in 84 factories by 2024. More than half of them began to be built this year or last.” Again, none of them in Mexico.

And the main chip manufacturers will not install a plant in Mexico until they are sure that the current government, AMLO’s or the one that comes after him, will respect the agreements, contracts and rules of the game.

Mrs. Raimondo said that our country could benefit from the CHIPS or CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 promulgated by Biden on August 9 of last year. However, the press release that the White House issued that day makes it very clear that this law will “Strengthen American manufacturing, supply chains, and national security, and invest in research and development, science and technology, and the workforce.” of the future to keep America a leader in tomorrow’s industries, including nanotechnology, clean energy, quantum technology, computing, and artificial intelligence… will unlock hundreds of billions more in semiconductor investment from the private sector around the world country, including essential production for national defense and critical sectors. Neither the press release nor the much-mentioned law mention, even in passing, Mexico or the possibility that the investments that will be dedicated to strengthening the US chip industry are destined for a country other than the US.

It will be a long time before a fab settles in Mexico.

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