The US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Semiconductor Support Act have led to a rapid increase in factory construction in the US, such as promoting reshoring, but difficulties in securing a factory site are being pointed out as a limitation.
On the 13th (local time), Reuters reported that companies rushed to build factories in the United States to receive subsidies, but were having difficulty finding so-called ‘megasites’ to build them. A megasite is a large site of about 1,000 acres (4.05 million square meters) with transportation, low-cost energy, and a nearby supply of skilled labor.
As a result of a survey on the demand for megasites in the United States by Global Location Strategy, a consulting firm in South Carolina, USA, 20 factory construction projects were announced last year alone that would invest more than $1 billion and create at least 1,000 jobs in the United States. done. This is a significant increase compared to 15 the previous year and 8 in 2020, and in particular, for about 10 years before the recent surge, it was only about 5 per year on average.
The problem is that despite the abundance of land in the United States, there are not many sites that have all the conditions for a megasite to build a multibillion-dollar plant quickly. Scout Motors, Volkswagen’s off-road vehicle brand, surveyed 74 US sites last summer for a $2 billion plant.
However, most sites had to be eliminated, either because it would take six years to connect the rails, or because they could not source the clean energy essential for eco-friendly electric vehicles, or because they did not have access to skilled labor nearby. In the end, it was decided to build the plant on a 1,600-acre South Carolina site instead of the initially planned 2,000-acre.
US electric car maker Rivian considered building a $5 billion plant on a site outside Fort Worth, Texas. However, it would take some time for the site to be equipped with transportation infrastructure, so the plant construction project was eventually moved to Georgia.
Intel wants to build a semiconductor factory in Ohio, but the factory site cannot be close to railroads because it needs to avoid vibrations caused by trains passing by. Cubic PV, which manufactures silicon wafers used in solar panels, sought hundreds of plant sites ranging from 100 to 130 acres shortly after passing the IRA last year, but continued to run into obstacles. In some areas, it was expected that it would take two to three years just to install water and electricity.
Another limitation is pointed out that the new plant requires electricity demand. In particular, electric vehicle battery factories require large-scale power, but this is also facing difficulties as the United States focuses on building eco-friendly power plants instead of fossil fuel power generation, Reuters reported. “Building a plant requires thousands of megawatts of power, but at the same time the US is shutting down a lot of coal power plants,” said Didi Caldwell, president of Global Location Strategy.
Reporter Seo Jae-chang of Helloty |
