[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] SK Siltron, the only wafer manufacturer in Korea, announced on the 29th that it held a board meeting and approved an investment budget of 855 billion KRW for the expansion of 12-inch silicon wafers. It plans to additionally review an investment of around 400 billion KRW in consideration of the business environment in the first half of next year.
Since March this year, SK Siltron has been carrying out the first phase of a project to build a semiconductor wafer factory by investing 1.0495 trillion KRW in the 3rd Industrial Complex of the Gumi National Industrial Complex, where its headquarters is located. If the new investment of 400 billion KRW is confirmed next year, SK Siltron will invest about 2.3 trillion KRW in the silicon wafer business over five years in three phases until 2026.
Despite the recent global economic downturn causing significant fluctuations in the semiconductor market, SK Siltron appears to have made a large-scale investment to gain an advantage in wafer supply and demand competition in 2 to 3 years.
An SK Siltron official explained, "Experts and the industry expect the semiconductor market to rebound after a short down cycle," adding, "Despite uncertainties, major domestic and international semiconductor manufacturers have recently been actively investing in facilities."
He continued, "The semiconductor industry requires large-scale capital investment to build facilities," and added, "Since it takes several years from investment decisions to mass production of products, it is always necessary to prepare for future market changes."
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