SK Group Seeks Faster Buildout of Southwest Korea Chip Cluster

SK Group plans to accelerate work on a proposed semiconductor cluster in southwestern South Korea as it seeks to keep pace with growing global chip demand, Chairman Chey Tae-won said Friday.

Chey made the remarks during a visit to Gwangju Air Base in the Jeonnam-Gwangju region, the proposed location for a new manufacturing hub involving SK hynix. He said the group intends to build the cluster as quickly as possible once the necessary conditions are in place.

The chairman linked the need for speed to rapid growth in semiconductor demand. He said supply must expand faster to match that demand, placing the project within SK Group’s broader effort to increase chip production capacity.

A construction start date has not yet been decided. Chey nevertheless emphasized that the group wants to break ground at the earliest feasible point, indicating that preparatory conditions and the final schedule remain important variables for the project.

The proposed southwestern cluster would be substantial in scale. Chey said it is expected to be about two-thirds the size of the semiconductor cluster now being developed in Yongin, south of Seoul. The comparison highlights the planned project’s importance within South Korea’s expanding chip manufacturing network.

Friday’s trip was Chey’s first visit to the region since SK Group announced the plan in June. The visit brought renewed attention to a project that could extend major semiconductor investment beyond the established production centers around the capital region.

SK hynix and Samsung Electronics announced long-term investment plans for the southwestern region earlier this year. Those plans include two new memory-chip fabrication plants from each company, making the area a prospective base for a significant expansion of national manufacturing capacity.

Gwangju Air Base was selected in July as the project site. The government is targeting the start of mass production in 2030, giving the companies and public authorities a long-term objective as they work through construction planning and other requirements.

For SK Group, the immediate message is one of urgency without a fixed groundbreaking date. Chey’s comments show that the conglomerate sees the southwest project as a response to rising demand and wants to shorten the path from planning to construction once the conditions needed for development have been satisfied.