In the final web posting from Workforce 2022, access a directory to
one of the most useful but underrated workforce and operations
resources in the nation: the national network of Manufacturing
Extension Partnerships. Meanwhile, you can still revisit the entire
storehouse of business intelligence and insights from Workforce 2022
at the home page for the publication.
News that BioNTech is going to deploy shipping containers in assembling modular
vaccine factories in Rwanda, Senegal and potentially South
Africa calls to mind a story we published eight years ago
profiling the many potential markets — including biopharma — that SG
Blocks aimed to target with its plan to transform the world’s unused
shipping containers into useful buildings. At an event held at its
new manufacturing facility in Marburg, Germany, the company revealed
that its manufacturing solution consists of one drug substance and
one formulation module, each called a BioNTainer (pictured) and each
built of six ISO-sized containers. Each BioNTainer is a clean room
which BioNTech equips with state-of-the-art manufacturing solutions,
the company explains. Together, two modules offer an estimated
initial capacity of, for example, up to 50 million doses of the
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine each year.
The United States isn’t the only location where semiconductor
investments are stacking up. On February 24, Taiwan-based United
Microelectronics announced its board of directors has approved a
plan to build this new $5 billion advanced manufacturing facility
next to its existing 300mm fab (Fab12i) in Singapore. The first
phase of this greenfield fab will have a monthly capacity of 30,000
wafers with production expected to commence in late 2024. UMC has
operated as a pure-play foundry supplier in Singapore for more than
20 years and the location is also the company’s designated R&D
center for advanced specialty technologies. “Over the past two
decades, UMC has benefited from Singapore’s vision to attract high
tech firms through strong infrastructure, ecosystem, and talent
pool,” said UMC Chairman Stan Hung. “Our Singapore fab is UMC’s
flagship innovation hub and numerous new R&D projects in
collaboration with customers will enter production when the new
facility comes online. The semiconductor undersupply has
crystallized the need for greater visibility and mutual risk
mitigation within the industry.”
UMC’s announcement above came two days after GlobalFoundries held a virtual
groundbreaking ceremony for a new $4 billion fab on its own
Singapore campus. Both projects are in partnership with the
Singapore Economic Development Board. GF is adding 250,000 sq. ft.
of cleanroom space and new administrative offices. The new fab will
create 1,000 new high-value jobs, with ramp-up planned for 2023. “GF
is meeting the challenge of the global semiconductor shortage by
accelerating our investments around the world. Working in close
collaboration with our customers and the Government of Singapore is
a recipe for success that we are pioneering here and looking forward
to replicating in the U.S and Europe,” said GF CEO Tom Caulfield.
“Our new facility in Singapore will support fast-growing end-markets
in the automotive, 5G mobility and secure device segments with
long-term customer agreements already in place.”
In September 2020 Site Selection noted the $7.29
million sale by First Financial Network to California-based
Allrise Capital of the Chornomorets Stadium in Odessa, Ukraine, on
behalf of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF) and the intervened
ImexBank. In addition to fielding a “world-class” soccer team at the
facility, Allrise plans to make other investments to enhance the
location, which includes 850,000 sq. ft. of commercial real estate.
“This transaction aligns with one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky’s primary economic goals of attracting direct foreign
investment and demonstrates the nation’s ability to sell assets to
the international community,” said John Morris, president, First
Financial Network, when the transaction was completed in July 2020.
In recent days, Russian missiles have struck Odessa as well as
struck ships at sea off its vacation-destination coastline.
“Ukraine represents a unique investment opportunity as the country
continues to undergo a fundamental democratic and economic
transformation, integrating deeper into the global economy,” Ruslan
Zinurov, the CEO of Allrise Capital, said when his firm made that
July 2020 purchase. “We are buoyed by Ukraine’s structural reforms
and commitment to protect property rights and improve the business
climate for international investors.”
Last week, amid other examples of courage demonstrated by President
Zelensky, he initiated what he called a program of “economic
patriotism” that “will provide targeted support to certain sectors
of the economy, reduce the tax burden on entrepreneurs, limit
inspections and create incentives to attract funds of the population
to businesses and the banking system.” As might be expected, the
online link to that program was not functioning over the weekend.
When it is, you will find information about this program and all FDI
and other opportunities at UkraineInvest.
