SINGAPORE'S business and economic links with the German state of Saxony - which is often called Silicon Saxony for being home to Europe's largest microelectronics and ICT cluster, and the fifth largest of its kind in the world, have grown stronger in recent years.

The strongest link between Singapore and Saxony is the aerospace company Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), a joint venture company of Singapore's ST Engineering and the Airbus Group, which is based in the German state's capital, Dresden.

ST Engineering first bought into EFW belonging to Airbus in 2013, and subsequently increased its stake in 2016 to gain 55 per cent majority ownership. The company - which is a market leader in passenger airplane to freight conversions, is the largest aerospace company in Saxony.

There is also an important link between Saxony and Singapore in the microelectronics industry. It has been cooperating with the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association since 2016. Many commonalities like the facilities of Infineon and Siltronic strengthen the partnership of Saxony and Singapore in this field.

Other significant links between Saxony and Singapore range from the common research projects of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft und Technische Universität Dresden with institutions in Singapore to A. Lange & Söhne's boutique in the Orchard Road area which sells luxury watches made in Glashütte, Saxony. Germany's Fraunhofer Gesellschaft is Europe's largest application oriented research organisation.

According to a list compiled by the Saxony Economic Development Corporation for The Business Times, there are 46 successful business ventures linking Singapore and Saxony. It says there are many good reasons why the state is a top location for such globally active companies as Infineon, Bosch, Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche, GlaxoSmithKline, and many more.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

"Due to its advantageous geographic location, Saxony is the ideal logistics location for distributing goods throughout Europe," the economic development body tells BT.

"The logistics giant DHL operates its European air cargo hub at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Saxony has the brightest minds with 95 per cent of the Saxons having earned at least a university entrance diploma or have completed vocational training.

"Another particular strong point of the region is its very unique and compact research infrastructure. The region scores points, for example, with the volume of investments into research and development, the large number of SMEs which develop their own in-house process and product innovations, the high degree of research and development (R&D) cooperation between SMEs, and a large number of European Union patents."

Saxony is one of Germany's most dynamic economic regions with a strong industrial base. Whether it be 200 years of mechanical engineering industry or more than 100 years of "Autoland Saxony", whether it be Europe's leading microelectronics and ICT cluster Silicon Saxony or environmental and energy technology - vibrant industries and clusters are based in the state on smart ideas and intelligent solutions.

With approximately 2,400 companies and about 64,000 employees, the state's nickname of Silicon Saxony is well deserved as every third chip produced in Europe bears the label "Made in Saxony". Silicon Saxony aptly demonstrates its innovative power in diverse fields: In Dresden's 5G Lab Germany, more than 600 scientists are working on the development of key 5G technologies to be used, for example, for autonomous driving and smart factories.

Early 2019 marked the start of the Research Laboratory Microelectronics Dresden (ForLab DCST) as a lead laboratory for 11 other ForLabs located throughout the country. Saxony also assumes a strong position when it comes to artificial intelligence as it has three research centres of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and the semiconductor producer Infineon located in the state.

EFW, the joint venture between ST Engineering and Airbus combines various aviation and technology activities under a single roof: development and manufacturing of fibre reinforced composite components for aircraft structures and interiors, the conversion of passenger aircraft into freighter configuration, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services on all Airbus aircraft as well as engineering expertise in the context of certification and approval.

The company has a workforce of more than 1,600 employees and achieved revenues of approximately 300 million euros in 2019. Being experienced in aviation for several decades, EFW looks back to an impressive track record of producing more than 5 million composite components, conversion of more than 200 passenger aircraft to freighters and maintenance of a large number of commercial and military aircraft.

More than 40 customers worldwide, among them the largest express carriers in North America and Europe, already operate aircraft converted by EFW - the centre of excellence for freighter conversions for more than 20 years and which is growing the modern Airbus freighter family.

ST Engineering's economic links with Dresden have enabled it to further anchor its passenger to freighter business with Airbus as one of the biggest conversion houses in the world.

"Through EFW, the ties between Airbus and ST Engineering also grew stronger as EFW is the first-tier supplier of composite floor panels for the entire Airbus family of commercial aircraft as well as many other composite solutions, including partitions and more complex modules such as crew rest compartments, for Airbus programmes," Mr Jeffrey Lam, Commercial Aerospace President, ST Engineering, tells BT.

A key collaboration between ST Engineering and Airbus, through the joint venture with EFW, has been the development of the Airbus family of passenger to freighter (P2F) conversions, comprising the A330 and A321/A320 P2F programmes.

"These are exclusive P2F programmes whereby Airbus contributes with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) data and certification support, making the solution not only more robust and reliable, but also flexible in covering a broad spectrum of conversion variants," says Mr Lam.

ST Engineering is responsible for the engineering development work up through certification. Combining the strengths of both ST Engineering and Airbus has enabled it to bring to market impactful new products.

Looking ahead, the Singapore company says that it will continue to invest in EFW to build up its P2F business as the business is expanding rapidly on the back of the global e-commerce boom and strong demand for freighter aircraft.

"Conversion capacity is being ramped up at both our facilities in Dresden and Singapore, along with the setting up of new conversion sites in the United States and China. As composite manufacturing increasingly gets adopted in industries including aerospace and transportation in general, we will also build on EFW's expertise in this area to grow the business," Mr Lam tells BT.

ST Engineering is a global technology, defence and engineering group with a diverse portfolio of businesses across the aerospace, smart city, defence and public security segments. In aerospace, ST Engineering has over 45 years of experience and a network of facilities spread across the world in the Asia-Pacific, the United States and Europe.

In Singapore, ST Engineering has three aerospace facilities - located in Paya Lebar, Seletar Aerospace Park and Changi. ST Engineering is the world's largest airframe MRO provider, and has proven solutions for practically every stage of an aircraft life cycle, from design and engineering, original equipment manufacturing, nose-to-tail after-market and maintenance services, to asset management and leasing.