ASML Could Stay in the Netherlands with Further Investments and Create 20,000 New Jobs

[AleksandarK]

Last month, we covered ASML's plans to leave the Netherlands after a crisis with the Dutch government that prevented skilled immigrants from entering and working inside ASML's facilities. However, it appears that ASML has managed to strike a potential deal with the Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his office about the company's plans to stay in the country. In an effort dubbed "Operation Beethoven," the Dutch government aimed to keep the tech giant in the country, with a deal now seemingly in place. AMSL's roadblocks and reasons for potentially leaving the Netherlands were difficulty in obtaining building permits, constraints on the electrical grid, transportation bottlenecks, and a need for supporting infrastructure like hospitals, schools, and housing. The most prominent of them was importing foreign labor in the form of highly skilled engineers and scientists needed to develop next-generation lithography machines.

According to the NLTimes, ASML now plans to potentially expand in the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC) in Eindhoven, with a creation of 20,000 new jobs in a 2.5 billion Euro investment from the Dutch government. "BIC is an interesting option for us, which we are now exploring together with the municipality of Eindhoven," noted ASML CFO Roger Dassen. Given that ASML needs to double its operations in the following decade to meet soaring demand, the company has many uncertainties. Questions of finding skilled immigrants and building infrastructure to support their needs remain the company's priority. In the Summer, the plan to support ASML's expansion will be voted in the Eindhoven City Council, which will decide the fate of ASML's stay in the Netherlands. An interesting comment from January from AMSL CEO Peter Wennik is, "Ultimately, we can only grow this company if there are enough qualified people. We prefer to do that here, but if we cannot get those people here, we will get those people in Eastern Europe or in Asia or in the United States. Then we will have to go there." The final decision still awaits.



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[AusWolf]

Preventing the movement of skilled (or unskilled) workforce is the worst thing any modern government could do. Learn from the UK's example: ever since Brexit, things have been going down the toilet fast.

I'm glad the Dutch got ASML back on board.

 

[qlum]

Preventing the movement of skilled (or unskilled) workforce is the worst thing any modern government could do. Learn from the UK's example: ever since Brexit, things have been going down the toilet fast.

I'm glad the Dutch got ASML back on board.

While I agree with that in principle, there are some large issues the country needs to resolve, the power grid is at it's limit, which takes time to resolve, there is a large housing shortage, which takes at least a decade to aleviate.

The later is mostly due to policy mistakes over the last decade and a half.
The former due to an influx of datacenters and electrification.

 

[kondamin]

I’m sure it wasn’t all an excuse to wring out more subsidies and tax breaks

 

[Easo]

Really funny watching some corpo pushing around during times of uncertainty regarding world's chip production.
Dutch goverment absolutely could easily stop any move (and yes, that would be lawful, let's not cosplay kindergarten) - I am not sure the carrot approach is always the best one.

 

[qlum]

Really funny watching some corpo pushing around during times of uncertainty regarding world's chip production.
Dutch goverment absolutely could easily stop any move (and yes, that would be lawful, let's not cosplay kindergarten) - I am not sure the carrot approach is always the best one.

In this case the main concern is red tape around expansion and hiring abroad not financial incentives. Those are quite legitimate concerns and not just a case of shopping for tax breaks.

 

[Fourstaff]

While I agree with that in principle, there are some large issues the country needs to resolve, the power grid is at it's limit, which takes time to resolve, there is a large housing shortage, which takes at least a decade to aleviate.

The later is mostly due to policy mistakes over the last decade and a half.
The former due to an influx of datacenters and electrification.

In the same vein, Dutch govt will need to solve the housing and power problem instead of letting "free market" dictate.

 

[qlum]

In the same vein, Dutch govt will need to solve the housing and power problem instead of letting "free market" dictate.

Absolutely, however, those are not instant things fixes in any case.

 

[P4-630]

Eidenhoven City Council

Eindhoven

 

[Readlight]

How we can know they and their partners not giving tools for russians to make chips?

In the same vein, Dutch govt will need to solve the housing and power problem instead of letting "free market" dictate.

Housing problem is easy, move to country whit less people, lower economy, oil consumption on one person.

 

[redeye]

How we can know they and their partners not giving tools for russians to make chips?


Housing problem is easy, move to country whit less people, lower economy, oil consumption on one person.

why worry?, Russia already has the supplies to make Chips…
Russians have a lot of Potatoes, right?. why do they need a fab for Chips, all you need is oil and electricity for Chips… (in short supply i assume in some parts of Russia.)

regarding electricity, seriously, if Germany would just put a Nuclear plant on a Shut down coal mine, (a huge expanse of land, away from everybody) Everybody would have enough power… (ie, somebody has to aggre to using nuclear power, and share it…)

 

[mechtech]

Again…..start apprenticeship programs and start training students out of school.

 

[Hakker]

Again…..start apprenticeship programs and start training students out of school.

You mean what they have been doing since before it was even ASML? They work with Universities of Eindhoven, Delft, Twente, Aachen and Leuven and doing apprenticeship programs among other things. They kept going when Philips was selling division after division and ASML basically took anything of value from Philips when they started imploding. Yes Philips is a shell of the giant it used to be.

 

[maxfly]

ASML has seemingly made a deal with the prime minister. Is the city council meeting nothing more than a formality or...?

 

[mechtech]

You mean what they have been doing since before it was even ASML? They work with Universities of Eindhoven, Delft, Twente, Aachen and Leuven and doing apprenticeship programs among other things. They kept going when Philips was selling division after division and ASML basically took anything of value from Philips when they started imploding. Yes Philips is a shell of the giant it used to be.

More than that. Put up job postings for an "apprentice" as in a person with 0 experience, but underlying education, chemistry/physics/engineering for any student, fresh out of school or not.

When my dad got out of gr.12 he got on with a company as a machinist apprentice. I know it's hard to compare wages vs buying power, but his buying power then would be about $60/hr (cad) in today's terms as an apprentice. They were no shortages of people lined up at the door for a job.

I heard a lot of companies complaining about shortages of skilled labour, skilled trades, etc.

I think what they mean is the pool is very small depending on the wage they wish to pay. Post an engineering job for $200k/year at a starting rate, and I am willing to be you will have no shortage of applicants. Wages help drive where people look for jobs.

Example mining pays well, so if I can make $130k/yr with gr.12 and 0 responsibility and work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off, it doesn't make much sense economically to go to university for 4 years at a cost of $50k/yr only to make $70k/yr.

I know not an apple to apples since I believe university is mainly free there vs North America? If the company is worldwide then really they should be able to pull people from the whole world and just transfer them with in the company (if the employee desires). As someone who previously was in mining, it's a career that you can end up all over the world while still being employed by one company.

As an example

Senior Manufacturing Engineer

www.asml.com

Nothing about remuneration, time off, pensions, benefits, etc. And that list of requirements!

This career could be way better than mine, but without that info posted, I would not bother to even apply.

 

[trsttte]

Preventing the movement of skilled (or unskilled) workforce is the worst thing any modern government could do. Learn from the UK's example: ever since Brexit, things have been going down the toilet fast.

I'm glad the Dutch got ASML back on board.

You mean best right?

regarding electricity, seriously, if Germany would just put a Nuclear plant on a Shut down coal mine, (a huge expanse of land, away from everybody) Everybody would have enough power… (ie, somebody has to aggre to using nuclear power, and share it…)

Nuclear plants need large bodies of water for cooling, usually coal mines are not near any rivers or water basins, probably to prevent contamination (mining is a very messy business)

 

[AusWolf]

You mean best right?

No. Ever since Brexit, the British economy has been in shambles, we've got whole industries lacking skilled workforce and funding. Logistics (warehousing), for example, has sunk to national minimum wage which makes it unattractive for any British person with half a brain cell. We have relied so heavily on European workers that there's a real struggle to find people wanting and being able to work, now that the doors from Europe are closed. Professionalism is dead, we're lucky to get any people who understand even the basics of the job. As far as I've heard, it's the same with the healthcare and transportation industries. Waiting lists for doctors have never been this long, and transport workers are almost always on strike over pay. Post-Brexit Britain is a joke.

 

[Minus Infinity]

Preventing the movement of skilled (or unskilled) workforce is the worst thing any modern government could do. Learn from the UK's example: ever since Brexit, things have been going down the toilet fast.

I'm glad the Dutch got ASML back on board.

Wow it's not that trivial. Highly complex issue and in Australia it has backfired spectacularly and despits a decade of so-called skilled migration our skill shortages never get plugged, our housing crisis is now extreme and we have huge social and infrastructure issues as the system buckles unsustainable and literally insane levels of immigration.
This has nothing to do with how a scumbag lowlife like Sunak is treating people and in Australia we taught the UK everything they need to know about being reprehensible arseholes, but that is a separate issue to sky-high immigration.

 

[watzupken]

May be it is me, but let's take a step back and think about this. While every nation is trying to diversify chip production by onshoring fabs, the key company that makes the machines to produce cutting edge chips is only in Netherlands. Hmmm... I do wonder how effective is the diversification. If something happens in Netherlands, it will be catastrophic in the mid to long term.

 

[kondamin]

In this case the main concern is red tape around expansion and hiring abroad not financial incentives. Those are quite legitimate concerns and not just a case of shopping for tax breaks.

And those aren’t in the hands of the Dutch government, as that will just bow to US pressure and EU rules.
so yes fishing for tax breaks it is.