Samsung Electronics launched a project to build the world’s largest semiconductor production line in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on May 7, whose first phase calls for an investment of 15.6 trillion won by 2017.
Under the catchphrase “Looking Forward to the Future,” Samsung Electronics held a ground-breaking ceremony at the Godeok International Zone Industrial Complex in Peyongtaek. Among some 600 people on hand at the event were President Park Geun-hye, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Yoon Sang-jick, Gyeonggi-do Gov. Nam Kyung-pil, Pyeongtaek Mayor Kong Jae-gwang, and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman & CEO Kwon Oh-hyun.
Samsung Electronics’ Pyeongtaek semiconductor complex covers 2.89 million sq. meters, which is equivalent to 400 soccer fields. The size of the complex is almost equivalent to the combination of the nation’s existing largest Giheung and Hwaseong semiconductor complexes. The project calls for the construction of the largest-ever semiconductor production line, and a combined 15.6 trillion won will be invested in the first phase, the biggest-ever investment into a single semiconductor production line.
Figures from the Bank of Korea showed that the project would not only have 41 trillion won worth of production spillover effects and create 150,000 jobs, but it will also greatly contribute to invigorating the national economy through the development of such upstream and downstream industries as materials and equipment.
Samsung Electronics’ investment into the Pyeongtaek semiconductor complex has been advanced one year in accordance with the government’s policies to reinvigorate provincial economies, including the relaxation of regulations, part of the government’s three year economic innovation plan. In particular, the government worked out a step to supply electricity, a key part of the construction of a semiconductor complex, by late 2016, earlier than planned. It has also provided support for the advancing of the operation of a semiconductor production line by simplifying permits for the supply of water for industrial use.
In conjunction with the government’s so-called Manufacturing Innovation 3.0 Strategies to reinvigorate manufacturing industries, Samsung Electronics said it plans to establish a closer cooperative system with the central and local governments so that the semiconductor industry can enjoy synergetic energies with promising future industries as a key foundation for creating new industries to represent the “creative economy.”
The new Pyeongtaek semiconductor production line, which adopts environmentally-friendly and state-of-the-state technologies, will come on line in the first half of 2017. The new production line is forecast to play a pivotal role in not only strengthening Samsung Electronics’ leadership in the mobile and server markets, which have been surging of late, but also occupying the next-generation Internet of Things (IoT).
Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business, which marked its 40th anniversary last December, has moved from strength to strength in accordance with the government’s policies to nurture advanced industries to rank 1st in the global memory semiconductor market 22 years on a row.
Samsung Electronics, poised to seize up an opportunity for the resurging of the system semiconductor segment, declared its determination to make the Pyeongtaek semiconductor complex a key component of the industry for the next 40 years.
“Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business, which started with nothing on a technology wasteland, is now preparing for making another leap forward resurgence for the future of Korea, and the Pyeongtaek semiconductor complex is hoped to play a big part in the realization of the creative economy,” Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman & CEO Kwon said in a welcoming speech at the ceremony.
Ground will be broken for the semiconductor complex without a hitch thanks to active support from the central and local governments, said Vice Chairman Kwon, adding that his company’s continued R&D and investments to become the world’s top semiconductor maker will contribute to the development of the national and regional economies and reward people’s support.
