SK hynix opens NAND flash plant in Cheongju
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SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won speaks during an opening ceremony of SK hynix’s M15 plant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, Thursday. / Courtesy of SK hynix
By Baek Byung-yeul
CHEONGJU -- SK hynix has officially opened a new semiconductor fabrication plant called M15 in the North Chungcheong Province city, Thursday.
The new chip plant is built on a 60,000-square-meter space and the cleanroom space in the plant will produce NAND flash memory chips.
SK hynix invested around 2.2 trillion won ($1.95 billion) to construct the plant and will invest up to 20 trillion won in equipment costs. The firm has produced NAND flash memory chips at its M11 and M12 plants in Cheongju and the M14 plant in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province.
To ramp up its NAND flash memory production capacity, SK hynix announced a construction plan for the M15 plant in December 2016. It took about a year and a half to complete the construction since the firm dug up the first shovel of dirt in April of last year.
With the M15 plant, SK hynix can accelerate its NAND flash production capacity. Though the company is the world's second-largest DRAM maker with a market share of 27.4 percent, it remained fifth in NAND flash memory chips with about 10 percent market share.
Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, said “the firm has owed a lot to the country and local communities to help the country transform itself. It had been on the verge of selling out to one of the world's leading memory chip firms.”
The M15 plant is a part of Chey's future vision set in 2015 to invest 46 trillion won in semiconductors. Chey added that SK Group will exert efforts to become not only an enterprise that generates profit but also a business group with more social responsibility.
President Moon Jae-in, who also joined the opening ceremony, promised the government will continue to invest in the semiconductor industry.
“Semiconductor is an essential component for future technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), big data and self-driving vehicles. I am rooting for SK hynix's continuous investment plan and the government will keep supporting the firm by investing more in research and development to make technological innovations,” President Moon said during an opening ceremony.
Moon expressed his wish that SK hynix can lead the world's NAND flash memory chip industry. “NAND flash memory is a core for big data. With the completion of the Cheongju plant, SK hynix could enhance its capacity of NAND flash memory chips,” Moon said.
Moon also said the M15 plant can help the local economy. “The Cheongju plant is expected to hire 1,000 people by the end of this year and 2,100 more people by 2020. It is also expected that its partner companies would also create about 3,000 new jobs. This could be a great opportunity for the local economy,” Moon said.
SK hynix expects the new plant will help the firm meet the growing demand for memory chips.
“With the expansion of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there has been growing demand for memory chips for big data, AI, the fifth-generation (5G) network and self-driving vehicles,” said Kim Jeong-ki, vice president of the firm's PR office. “We will be prepared to meet our customers' demands.”
A local institute predicted the firm's new plant can bring a positive ripple effect on the economy. According to the Institute of Economic Research at Seoul National University, the M15 plant is forecasted to create 218,000 additional jobs and generate production inducement and value-added effects worth 70.9 trillion won and 25.8 trillion won by 2023. SK hynix said it needed work from 160 partners to construct the plant.
The opening ceremony also featured local residents and partner firms with the expectation that the new plant can boost the local economy.
Yoon Ki-soon, a leader of small businesses nearby the plant and an owner of a restaurant, said “we are expecting to have more customers thanks to the operation of the M15 plant.”
Yu Won-yang, president of Cheongju-based firm TEMC, a partner firm of SK hynix, said he hopes the new plant will become “an opportunity for mutual growth.” TEMC is known for its competitiveness in laser gas. Recognizing the firm's high potential for technical innovation, SK hynix chose TEMC as one of the innovation startups this year.