Led by SK Hynix, it is likely that a 120 trillion won semiconductor cluster will be established in Yongin City, Gyeonggi-do. The parties including companies that will invest in the cluster have chosen Yongin. The race for the cluster among municipal governments nationwide will end, which is now regarded by experts as having been a ‘political show’.
SK Hynix announced yesterday that it has submitted a Letter of Intent for Investment to Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province, on October 20th, via the Yongin General Industrial Complex, a special purpose company (SPC) established to create the semiconductor cluster site. An official of SK Hynix explained, "The first step for the semiconductor cluster creation project involving more than 50 domestic and foreign partners has been taken."
Yongin General Industrial Complex Co., Ltd as an SCP is responsible for the licensing and authorization as well as the construction of the building complexes. It will be liquidated once the work is completed. Local construction companies, financial investors (FI), and SK E&C are listed as major shareholders of Yongin General Industrial Complex. An industry official said, "If you look at the name of the SPC, it already has the word Yongin in it, meaning that the cluster site has been specified as Yongin from the beginning."
The site that SPC applied for is located in Wonsam-myeon of Yongin City, Gyeonggi-do. It is about 448,000 square meters. Once the site selection is finalized, SK Hynix plans to build four semiconductor factories by investing 120 trillion won after 2022 when the plant site is completed. More than 50 domestic and foreign equipment, materials, and parts companies and suppliers will be in this complex.
SK Hynix plans to offer a total of 1.2 trillion won in support over 10 years to create synergy with its domestic and overseas partners and strengthen the ecosystem. It will provide 300 billion won for the creation of pooled funds, 638 billion won in the establishment of the mutually beneficial cooperation center based on artificial intelligence (AI) and win-win programs, and 280 billion won in joint research and development (R & D).
SK Hynix and others have chosen the Yongin site for a variety of reasons. △ It is located in the metropolitan area where domestic and overseas talents prefer. △ It is easy to create an ecosystem for large and small enterprises to strengthen the domestic semiconductor competitiveness. △ It has a high level of connection with semiconductor business sites (Icheon, Cheongju, Giheung Hwasung, Pyeontack). △ And it is easy to construct such as electricity, water, and roads. About 85% of the 244 member companies of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association are located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. This means that cooperation becomes easier when the cluster is located in Yongin.
Although the semiconductor cluster will be built in Yongin, SK said that it will continue to invest in Icheon, Cheongju, and Gumi areas.
SK Hynix plans to invest 20 trillion won in M16 construction and R&D building construction in Icheon for 10 years and to invest 35 trillion won in Cheongju for 10 years for projects such as expanding M15 production capacity that has been operative since last year. SK Hynix plans to conclude a land purchase Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chungbuk Province and Cheongju City to build a new plant in Cheongju next month.
In Gumi, SK Siltron, a wafer manufacturing company, plans to invest about 900 billion won over the next two years to expand its production capacity.
An official from the industry said, "The central government will soon announce its position on the Yongin cluster establishment (submission of the Letter of Intent for Investment)."