This photo provided by the government of Gyeonggi Province shows the groundbreaking ceremony of ASML’s chip equipment manufacturing plant in Hwaseong, about 50 kilometers south of Seoul, held on Nov. 16, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – ASML, a Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment manufacturer, completed construction of a manufacturing plant in South Korea, which is expected to serve as a cooperation hub for the Dutch company and Korean chipmakers, the industry ministry said Wednesday.
The completion ceremony of the 16,000-square-meter cluster, named the New Campus, was held in Hwaseong, a major semiconductor hub located about 50 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.
The ministry said ASML’s Hwaseong campus will serve as one of the company’s key manufacturing hubs in Asia, while helping Korea strengthen its supply chains for the semiconductor industry.
The company also plans to expand its technology exchanges and cooperation with Korean chipmakers, such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., it added.
ASML is the world’s largest manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system, a highly advanced machine used in semiconductor manufacturing to print small circuit patterns onto silicon wafers.
The company’s plant here will house the so-called repair center, which remanufactures key equipment, such as EUV and deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems, as well as a training center dedicated to transferring advanced technologies.
“The advancement of Korea’s semiconductor industry depends on close cooperation with municipal and central governments, and international partners,” said Kang Gam-chan, deputy minister for trade and investment at the ministry.
“Today’s completion ceremony is a great example of such collaboration and I hope to see even stronger technological cooperation and investment between Korea and the Netherlands in the semiconductor field going forward,” he added, vowing efforts to attract more foreign investment to Korea.
(Yonhap)
