Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, officially acknowledged that he is reviewing the construction of a new semiconductor plant after building the semiconductor cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Chey said he plans to determine sites for additional plants by comprehensively reviewing land, workforce, water, and electricity, including both domestic and overseas options.
According to the business community, Chey met with reporters after a conversation at the Nikkei Forum "Korea-Japan Special Session" held at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo on the 10th and said about selecting the site for the next plant after the completion of the Yongin cluster, "We will make a decision after comprehensive consideration," adding, "An enormous amount of infrastructure is needed to build a plant. Power, land, workforce, and water all have to be in place."
Chey also left open the possibility of overseas investment. Chey said, "If (the conditions to build a semiconductor plant) in Korea are not met, there could be situations where we have to build (a plant) overseas," adding, "Where we build a plant will be decided after comprehensively considering market conditions and stakeholders' demands."
However, Chey emphasized that the top priority is creating the Yongin semiconductor cluster. Chey said, "For now, getting Yongin right is the biggest task," adding, "We are currently focused on the Yongin cluster."
SK hynix is currently building four fabs on a site of about 4,155,996 square meters in Wonsam-myeon, Cheoin-gu, Yongin. Construction on the first fab is in the final stage, and the company has moved up the schedule from the original plan (May 2027) to target operation in Feb. 2027.
According to political and business circles, major groups such as Samsung and SK plan to announce their regional investment plans at a forum to be chaired by President Lee Jae-myung at the Blue House on the 29th. In relation to this, figures in politics are calling for building fabs, or semiconductor production plants, in the Honam and Chungcheong regions.