Minister Moon Sung-wook of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and industry leaders, including Chairman Lee Jung-bae of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association (KSIA), concurrently chief of Samsung Electronics’ Memory Business, President Lee Suk-hee of SK Hynix, attend a ceremony to launch a semiconductor alliance and collaboration committee and sign an MOU at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Seoul on Sept. 28. (Photo: MOTIE)

The government and the private sector have joined forces to overcome a crisis facing the Korean semiconductor industry, dubbed “K-semiconductor.” The global semiconductor supply shortage has disrupted the production of items ranging from automobiles to smartphones and home appliances.

As global hegemony over the semiconductor sector has heated up, the U.S. government has demanded that semiconductor companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, provide confidential management information.

Against this backdrop, the Korean government has teamed up with companies to ramp up the competitiveness of the Korean semiconductor industry.

A ceremony was held to launch the semiconductor alliance and collaboration committee at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Seoul on Sept. 28.

In attendance were Minister Moon Sung-wook of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and industry leaders, including Chairman Lee Jung-bae of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association (KSIA), concurrently chief of Samsung Electronics’ Memory Business, and President Lee Suk-hee of SK Hynix.

President Kim Young-sam of Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI), Chairman Chung Chil-hee of NEPES Corp., President Lee Hyeon-deok of Wonik IPS, Vice Chairman Lee Joon-hyuk of Dongjin Semichem and President Kim Dong-chun of Silicon Masters also participated in the event.

The committee consists of 30 members, including company, academic and research circle leaders from chipmakers like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, raw materials, parts and equipment makers, fabless and foundry makers.

MOTIE Minister Moon told the meeting that countries with which Korea is competing and cooperating are rushing to build their own supply chain networks, recognizing semiconductors as strategic weapons beyond strategic industries.

 
It is necessary for semiconductor producers, raw materials, parts and equipment companies to join forces and cooperate to help Korea become a leading nation of both memory sector and system memory segments, and in particular, convergence connectivity needs to be formed in the semiconductor ecosystem,” he said.

In this context, the newly inaugurated committee decided to join forces in jointly developing advanced materials, parts and equipment.

Fabless and foundry companies plan to proactively collaborate in the utilization of chip design intellectual properties and the production of prototype items to develop next-generation system semiconductors.

The agreement calls for academia and research circles to join forces in the semiconductor industry’s joint development of technologies and ministries, including MOTIE, to implement policies to support the corporate alliance.

The committee decided to explore additional collaboration tasks, such as vehicle chips, system semiconductors, materials, parts and equipment sectors, the weak points of the Korean semiconductor industry.

In a related development, ON Semiconductor Korea invested 250 billion won to increase chips for EVs at a plant in Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do. Telechips, a Korean fabless company, plans to team up with Korean foundry companies to produce vehicular application processors (APs).

The government plans to set aside 14.3 billion won for next year’s budget to nurture the new system semiconductor industry.

The government and private sectors plan to join forces to cope with pressure facing the K-semiconductor industry from governments, including the United States and China.

KSIA has inaugurated a window designed to deal with grievances and complaints over investments while related ministers and local governments plan to regularize a semiconductor investment checkup meeting.

Earlier, the U.S. government demanded that each global semiconductor company submit its inside management information until Nov. 8.

MOTIE Minister Moon said Korea and the United States are building up bilateral dialogue channels on the supply chain of core industries, including semiconductors.

Meanwhile, Korean chip makers have a cautious attitude toward the U.S. demand. SK Hynix President Lee said his company would have to discuss how to cope with the U.S. demand.

A Korean chip maker official said it is necessary to see whether disclosing corporate core confidential information to the outside, including the U.S. government, would be violated by law.