SK Hynix is planning to construct a new semiconductor plant at its headquarters in Incheon, Gyeonggi Provice to respond to increasing demands for memory semiconductors.
The new plant will be built on the 53,000-square meter site in the Incheon headquarters. SK Hynix plans to start construction at the end of this year and complete the project in October 2020. Furthermore, it will invest about 3.13 billion dollars, which is slightly larger than that of existing plants, in order to create a space for exclusive use of EUV, the next-generation exposure equipment.
The types and sizes of products will be decided in consideration of market conditions and the company’s technical capabilities. “With a robust supply and demand of memory based on data centers and mobile markets, it is expected that demand for memory will continue to grow in the future as the fourth industrial revolution, including AI, continues to spread,” said an official at SK Hynix.
The official at SK Hynix added, “However, supply has not been able to keep up with the pace of demand as it has become more difficult to expand production volume, such as lower conversion efficiency of micro processing technology and increased number of manufacturing processes. Without additional facility investment, it is difficult to meet market demand.”
SK Hynix is continuing expansion of its production base through M14 and a new factory in Cheongju, which is scheduled to be completed in the second half of this year, and a clean room expansion in Wuxi. However, additional investment is essential to meet the growing demand for memory.
Furthermore, it is also necessary to preemptively acquire space to accommodate the growing trend of semiconductor equipment. The investment was decided considering all of these points.
Meanwhile, the Seoul National University Economic Research Institute predicted that the new plant would generate 71.64 billion dollars in production, 23.4 million dollars in added value, and generate 348,000 jobs.
