TOK Advanced Materials Completes Pyeongtaek Poseung Factory…Secures Hub for Semiconductor Core Materials

The Gyeonggi Economic Free Zone Authority announced that TOK (Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.), a globally leading semiconductor core materials company that successfully attracted investment in 2023, completed its manufacturing facility in the Poseung (BIX) district of Pyeongtaek under the Gyeonggi Economic Free Zone Authority three years after the investment attraction.

The completion ceremony for TOK Advanced Materials' Pyeongtaek factory held on the 15th was attended by approximately 100 people, including Kim Neung-sik, head of the Gyeonggi Economic Zone Authority, Choi Won-yong, Mayor of Pyeongtaek, Noriaki Taneichi, President and Representative Director of TOK (Tokyo Ohka Kogyo), Kim Ki-tae, CEO of TOK Advanced Materials, and corporate officials.

TOK Advanced Materials is investing a total of 101 billion won on a site area of 55,560 square meters (16,807 pyeong). The first phase will establish manufacturing facilities for high-purity chemical products, with plans to construct photoresist manufacturing facilities in the future. Photoresist is a semiconductor core material used for drawing circuits on silicon wafers. Of this amount, 7.06 billion won is foreign direct investment, and approximately 70 new jobs are expected to be created in the future.

TOK Advanced Materials is the Korean subsidiary of TOK (Tokyo Ohka Kogyo), and TOK is the world's number one photoresist producer by market share, supplying to Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, TSMC, and Intel.

This completion is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed when the Gyeonggi Economic Free Zone Authority directly visited TOK's headquarters in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan in April 2023. At that time, the parties discussed cooperation plans with the goal of 'attracting a world-class semiconductor materials production base to the Gyeonggi Economic Free Zone Authority,' and after approximately three years, this completion has been achieved.

With the completion of TOK's Pyeongtaek factory, it is expected that the domestic self-sufficiency rate for semiconductor core materials with high dependence on Japan will expand, and supply chain stability and technological independence will improve. Additionally, the completion of the 'K-Semiconductor Belt' is anticipated.

Gyeonggi Province is building the world's largest semiconductor cluster connecting semiconductor industry hubs including Yongin, Icheon, Hwaseong, and Anseong, in addition to the Poseung and Hyunduk districts of Pyeongtaek, and the Poseung and Hyunduk district is expected to become the western coastal gateway and advanced materials hub of the semiconductor belt.

Kim Neung-sik, head of the Gyeonggi Economic Free Zone Authority, said, "Semiconductors are advanced strategic industries that determine national competitiveness, and with the completion of TOK, an advanced semiconductor company, we have made a leap forward as a hub for semiconductor core materials."