▲ SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won answers questions from reporters after completing a field inspection at the Gwangju military airport site in Seo-gu, South Jeolla-Gwangju, where a semiconductor industrial complex is set to be established, on the afternoon of the 9th.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won visited the Gwangju military airport, the site for the Honam semiconductor cluster, today (the 9th) and stated, "If we determine that conditions allow us to build, we will construct it at the maximum speed possible."
Meeting with reporters at the military airport in Seo-gu, South Jeolla-Gwangju, on the afternoon of this day, Chairman Chey expressed his commitment to a speed-driven rollout, saying, "Semiconductor demand is growing rapidly right now, so we need to accelerate the pace of supply to keep up with it."
He went on to emphasize, "As to when [construction will begin], we need to study it a bit more so I cannot give an answer today, but we will move as quickly as possible."
This marks the first time Chairman Chey has personally visited the factory (fab) site—including the Gwangju military airport area and the munitions depot area, which is a key maintenance candidate site—since the Honam-region semiconductor investment plan was announced in June.
The visit was accompanied by South Jeolla-Gwangju Mayor Min Hyung-bae and SK Hynix executives.
Chairman Chey stated, "We estimate that semiconductor demand will continue to increase at a fairly rapid pace," adding, "It seems there will be a need to create additional sites and [semiconductor fabs], and if necessary, circumstances may arise where we must build them in parallel [with the Yongin semiconductor cluster]."
SK Hynix recently moved up its target completion date for the Yongin semiconductor cluster by 12 years from 2045 to 2033, but Chairman Chey explained that this alone is deemed insufficient to fully expand production capacity, hence the plan to expedite the construction of the Gwangju fab as well.
Chairman Chey noted, "I came to check at what speed we can build the Gwangju fab," and added, "If Mayor [Min Hyung-bae] works hard on preparations, and if we recalculate the timing where the government's provision of water, electricity, and other infrastructure aligns with our parallel construction speed, I think an announcement [on the start of construction] will likely come soon."
He further added, "Even if water and power supplies are delayed, if we can just align the timing quickly, my thought is to go ahead and enter [construction] first," and "Up to now, we are planning a scale about two-thirds the size of Yongin. If there is more land and greater demand, we fully anticipate that this side [the Gwangju fab] could grow even larger."
Mayor Min stated, "On behalf of the 3.2 million special city citizens, I thank Chairman Chey Tae-won for clearly demonstrating his commitment to advancing the semiconductor cluster," and added, "To ensure that SK Hynix can stably build and operate a world-class semiconductor plant in an optimal environment, we will solidly back core infrastructure such as land, electricity, and water, as well as talent cultivation and residential conditions."
With SK Hynix executives having visited the Gwangju military airport around 10 times to continue discussions with South Jeolla-Gwangju, followed by Chairman Chey's direct on-site visit on this day, expectations are rising that the execution of the investment will gain even greater momentum.
During the June National Briefing on the 3 Major Mega-Projects, the government announced a long-term investment plan under which SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics will each build two memory fabs in the Honam region, totaling four fabs.
Subsequently, in July, the area around the Gwangju military airport was finalized as the location and a candidate site for a national industrial complex.
The government and South Jeolla-Gwangju are targeting initial mass production for the first phase in June 2030.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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