Alexis Elmore reports on a UK-based semiconductor company’s project in North Carolina; BAE’s expansion in Rochester, Kent, UK; and a massive $5 billion sustainable aviation fuel project from DG Fuels in Moorhead, Minnesota, part of the bistate Fargo metro area.

TIME FOR CHIPS

UK-based semiconductor manufacturer IQE announced last week that the company plans to invest $305 million to upgrade its Greensboro, North Carolina, semiconductor manufacturing facility. IQE plans to add metal-organic chemical vapor deposition technology to the site in order to support chip manufacturing catered toward EVs. “Greensboro has proven to be a strategic location for IQE and has provided access to exceptional talent,” said IQE Interim CEO Jutta Meier. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with the city as we progress further with our application for government funding via the CHIPS Act, which along with funding commitments from the state, will provide us with the capital to invest and expand our local footprint.” The project, which received a $275,000 performance-based grant from the state’s One North Carolina Fund, will support the creation of 109 new jobs in the region once complete. The Greensboro City Council additionally approved a $2.4 million incentive package for IQE.

AN AEROSPACE UPGRADE

Advanced aerospace technologies company BAE Systems has announced a new 344,445-sq.-ft. factory will soon be constructed on the company’s Rochester site in Kent, United Kingdom. The $285.27 million investment comes as part of BAE Systems’ strategy to combine its manufacturing, engineering and office operations to increase production capacity of products such as head-up displays, helmet-mounted displays and more. Construction is set to begin in 2025 and the project is anticipated to create 300 new jobs by 2030. “Our skilled workforce plays a vital role in delivering products that are of the utmost importance to national security and commercial aviation,” said BAE Systems Rochester Business Center Director Dave Banks. “This significant investment will help us attract additional highly skilled jobs to the Medway area – ensuring that we can deliver for our customers who depend on our products to complete their missions.” This project follows the company’s $388.97 million investment for a new shipbuilding manufacturing facility in Glasgow, Scotland, which was announced in October.

READY FOR MORE CHIPS

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) company DG Fuels has selected Moorhead, Minnesota, to establish a new $5 billion production plant to service the Great Lakes region. By 2030, the company will produce 193 million gallons of zero-CO2 lifecycle emissions SAF annually. Minnesota was chosen due to its productive farmland and abundance of timber resources, which will be vital in converting corn stover and timber waste into SAF, according to the company. The project will be built out over the next four years and is expected to create 650 new jobs once operational. “DG Fuels’ baseline process differs from other systems by having little or no environmental emissions either to the atmosphere or waters while at the same time providing significant economic value to the agricultural communities and farmers that we partner with,” said DG Fuels CEO Michael C. Darcy.

Reports compiled and written by Alexis Elmore, edited by Adam Bruns.

The project records appearing every week in the Site Selection Project Bulletin are pulled from the Conway Projects Database, a proprietary resource with tens of thousands of records of corporate end-user facility investments across all industry sectors and all world geographies. Want to look for our projects yourself? Look here.