Using export restrictions as an opportunity to overturn
It is very unusual for a global semiconductor company to have R&D in Korea.
Localization efforts continued
Efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of materials, parts and equipment (minister manager) in the domestic semiconductor industry, triggered by Japanese export regulations, are expected to accelerate in the new year. There have been places where overseas production facilities are relocated to Korea beyond import diversification, and there are increasing numbers of domestic semiconductor companies and global small managers deciding to enter Korea to research and develop cutting-edge technologies. The status of Korean semiconductors, which took export restrictions as an opportunity to overwhelm the phone, is being further strengthened as a’global semiconductor hub’.
According to the industry on the 1st, Zeus, a semiconductor equipment company, is in the process of moving the production line of its Japanese subsidiary JET to Korea. JET is a company that focuses on’batch-type’ cleaning equipment that can wash away residues generated during the process by putting multiple wafers at once, and Zeus acquired it in 2009. The company decided to move its Japanese production line to Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do and set up a factory last year when the atmosphere for restructuring the supply chain was created in Korea. The new plant is expected to be completed within this month. High-quality personnel who used to produce equipment in Japan will not only come to Korea, but are also recruiting new domestic workers.
Lam Research, a global semiconductor equipment company, will open an R&D center in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do in the second half of this year. Lam Research, which decided to invest in Korea last year, is hiring R&D personnel for full operation. Lam Research is a global semiconductor equipment company with annual sales of more than 10 trillion won, and is the world’s No. 1 in etching equipment.
It is known that it is very unusual for a global semiconductor company to have R&D in Korea, and after Lam Research, another global equipment company, Company A, has also begun work to prepare R&D in Korea. It is to develop next-generation memory semiconductors in cooperation with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix and to preoccupy the market.
In the domestic and overseas semiconductor industry, Korea’s advances and investments have risen markedly since last July, after Japanese export restrictions. Prior to export restrictions, the diversification of sub-managers was aimed at cost reduction. However, as export regulations emerged as a task that determines the survival of companies, efforts to diversify imports, localize, and substitute were promoted.
This urgency is acting as a driving force to change the semiconductor industry ecosystem in Korea. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are proclaiming that not only core materials but also raw materials that make up the material cannot be purchased if they are produced in a single region such as Japan and China. In addition, it is interpreted that the two companies also demanded domestic and foreign sub-manager companies for production and supply in Korea as a top priority, triggering the relocation and investment of domestic production bases. In fact, Japan’s TOK is producing and supplying photoresist (PR) for extreme ultraviolet (EUV), which has been regulated by the Japanese government, by moving it to Songdo, Incheon.
Localization efforts are also continuing. LOT Vacuum, the only domestic manufacturer of vacuum pumps for semiconductor mass production lines, is challenging the production of turbo (high vacuum) pumps that are dominated by foreign companies such as Edward of the UK, Raybold of Germany, and Shimadzu of Japan. The company started commercializing turbo pumps through a national project, and started developing pump products for semiconductor processing that are 100% imported from overseas. In addition, Dongjin Semichem is developing EUV PR with Samsung Electronics, and Micoceramics is developing ceramic heaters, which are key parts of semiconductor equipment.
Reporter Kang Haeryeong [email protected], Reporter Yun Gunil [email protected]