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The closure of the BelGaN gallium nitride power fab in Belgium last year will cost authorities over €1.1m.
A proposal from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers will support 417 staff who lost their jobs back in July 2024. This led to a 9% rise in unemployment in the municipality of Oudenaarde in East Flanders. Belgium applied for EGF support in February 2025, and the EGF proposal is up for approval by the European Parliament and the Council.
The funding will help the dismissed workers through measures such as counselling, vocational orientation, job-search assistance, and skills training. The EGF covering is 85% (€930,000) and Belgium’s Flemish Employment and Vocational Training Service (VDAB) is financing the remaining 15% (€170,000). Belgian authorities began providing support immediately after the layoffs, in August 2024 and the EGF can retroactively cover these costs.
The plant, which started life with Mietec and was owned by onsemi before being sold to BelGaN in February 2022, had a focus on automotive power devices.
There are three consortia reported to be interested in the plant, largely for photonics. Two of the bidders are Asian and one is from Europe. One of the bidders is reported to be Chinese-owned Silex Microsystems in Järfälla, Sweden, the world’s largest pure-play foundry for MEMS components. Chinese companies have been buying the chip-making equipment from the fab from the administrator.
A European consortium was reported to have paid a €2m downpayment for the plant in April 2025 as part of a €20m deal to use the plant to make photonic chips instead.
“I suspect that negotiations are still ongoing about the manner and extent of the investment. But it’s confirmed that it concerns chip production. There is a business plan for photonic chip production,” said administrator Ali Heerman.
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