Biggest of the Big

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The ESMC chip fab project in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, aims to create up to 2,000 jobs and reach a full capacity of 500,000 wafers annually.

Rendering courtesy of Bosch

A quick look at some of the largest corporate facility projects abroad in 2024

When Petroleum Hub Development Corporation (PHDC) Deputy CEO in charge of Finance and Administration Patrick Nyarko attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2024 (COP29) in November in Baku, Azerbaijan, his mission was clear: “‘The event presents a great opportunity to explore innovative approaches to environmental sustainability,” he said in a press release, “and an opportunity to highlight Ghana’s 20,000-acre Petroleum Hub, Africa’s first strategic energy and economic initiative, to global investors.”

Never heard of it? That’s not an uncommon reaction to some of the projects appearing on Site Selection’s Top Global Giants charts for 2024, which list the top 10 corporate end-user facility investments outside the United States that our research team qualified for the Conway Projects Database last year in three separate categories: capital investment, job creation and project area. Energy, chemicals, electronics and plastics are prominent on the lists, as are data centers, as projects in England and Spain from the Blackstone Group attest.

India is prominent among locations. And Taiwan-based organizations are prominent partners.

At $12 billion, the petroleum hub in Ghana, which broke ground in Jomoro in August, tops the investment category, just beating out $11 billion projects from European Semiconductor Manufacturing in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, and from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing in tandem with Tata Electronics in Dholera, Gujarat, India.

The scale of the PHDC project redefines ambitious, encompassing “the establishment of three refineries, five petrochemical plants, and storage tanks, with a capacity of 10 million cubic meters, jetties and port infrastructure.” The coalition even goes so far as to say the hub will create over 780,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country as it serves as “a key energy-generating and petroleum production hub within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). With Africa’s crude oil production capacity of 7.2 million barrels per day, the Petroleum Hub is poised to be an essential part of the continent’s energy strategy.”

Government, industry and local officials gathered in Jomoro, Ghana, in summer 2024 to ink an agreement for a massive petrochemical hub in the country’s Western Nzema Traditional Area. A delegation will visit the site this weekend.

A 116-page investment guide produced by the government-backed coalition refers to an eventually overall investment of $60 billion across 20,000 acres. However, Onuaonline.com news portal reports the megaproject is stalled because of payment of 1.2 billion Ghana cedis  (US$77 million) still due to affected communities in the Nawowle enclave in the country’s Western Nzema Traditional Area. “The resources may come from government directly or we’ll use other means to attract the resource to pay for the land that has been taken,” PHDC CEO Dr. Tony Aubynn told Energy News of Ghana Broadcast Corp. last week. Aubynn and a PHDC/government delegation will visit the project site this weekend.

Dresden a Focal Point for EU Chip Goals
European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) is a joint venture of TSMC, Bosch, Infineon and NXP to establish an advanced semiconductor fab in Dresden. The team in March reached its first concrete milestone by laying foundations for the complex. TSMC’s career website is showing 45 openings currently to work at the project.

In August 2024, the European Commission approved planned federal funding and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, together with the coalition partners, officially announced the start of joint investments in the construction and operation of the factory. The German government will provide up to 5 billion euros in funding to support the planned investments of over 10 billion euros by the partners, a release from the Ministry explained. The fab is the first German project to be nationally authorized and approved under state aid legislation by the European Commission under the European Chips Act. The European Commission’s goal is to expand Europe’s share of global semiconductor production to 20% by 2030.

“The ESMC chip factory will strategically strengthen the important domestic chip production and contribute to the resilience of the chip supply in Germany and Europe as well as in sectors that are central to Germany,” the Ministry stated. “Secure and reliable access to semiconductor chips is an important prerequisite for safeguarding the added value, innovative strength and competitiveness of the German and European economies.”

The project aims to create up to 2,000 jobs and reach a full capacity of 500,000 wafers annually. The Ministry said the project “could indirectly create up to 11,000 additional jobs in the local area and in the nationwide semiconductor ecosystem. In addition, upstream industries such as material and chemical manufacturers, as well as logistics and service companies, will benefit from this development. The chip factory is already working with universities across federal states, strengthening Germany’s technological expertise and opening up great opportunities for innovation. This is a decisive step towards accelerating digital transformation.”

Taiwan Involved in India Too
February 2024 saw the announcement by Tata Electronics that Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) will provide technology and execution support for a greenfield facility in Gujarat.

“In a significant step towards creating an indigenous (‘Make in India, For the World’) semiconductor ecosystem in India,” Tata announced, “Government of India has approved a proposal from Tata Electronics to build a mega semiconductor fabrication facility in Dholera, Gujarat, in partnership with PSMC. The fab construction will begin this year with a total investment of up to INR 91,000 crores (~US$11 billion) and will generate over 20,000 direct and indirect skilled jobs in the region. With this announcement, Tata Electronics enters the global semiconductor industry.”

The facility is expected to have a capacity of up to 50,000 wafers per month (600,000 a year).

“Tata Group has a tradition of pioneering many sectors in the country, and we are confident that our entry in semiconductor fabrication will add to this legacy.”

— Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, January 2024

“We are very excited to enter in partnership with Tata group, that I believe will script a new era in the global semiconductor industry,” said PSMC Chairman Dr. Frank Hong, adding that India “is uniquely placed to capture this opportunity. On one end India has a large and growing domestic demand and on the other end global customers are looking at India for supply chain resilience. There could not have been better time for India to make its entry into semiconductor manufacturing industry. This partnership has the potential to redefine the contours of global semiconductor manufacturing and we are looking forward to collaboration with Tata Electronics.”

Founded in 1868, the Tata group comprises 30 companies across 10 verticals that saw 2022-23 revenue of $150 billion and employment of more than 1 million people. The group’s 29 publicly listed enterprises had a combined market capitalization of $350 billion as of February 2024.

Among the top 25 projects by investment tracked by Site Selection abroad last year, nine were in India and three of those involved the Tata name. Among the top 25 by job creation, 16 are in India, including a pledge to create 50,000 jobs by Kothari Industrial Corporation Limited (KICL) in partnership with Taiwan’s Evervan Group at new non-leather footwear manufacturing units in the districts of Karur and Perambalur in Tamil Nadu.  — Adam Bruns