Vietnam attracts giant investments in semiconductor industry

Vietnam is drawing attention as an investment destination for global semiconductor companies while electronics makers continue to set up shop in the Southeast Asia country.

The new global production hub boasts a number of advantages including a stable political system, low labor costs, abundant human resources, and geological advantages that offer easy access to high-tech supply chains across Asia.

"We established our office to actively target the increasingly important Vietnamese market," said DS Kwak, vice chairman of Hanmi Semiconductor, a Korean semiconductor equipment company.

In early June, Hanmi Semiconductor opened a global branch office, Hanmi Vietnam, in the northern province of Bac Ninh - an upstart new production base for major global semiconductor companies.

Amkor Technology Inc., a world-leading semiconductor company headquartered in Arizona, the U.S., has so far invested $1.6 billion in Bac Ninh and is preparing to open its factory there at the end of this year, with trial operations set to start in October after construction is completed in September.

The factory will be among the biggest operated by Amkor globally and will cover around 23 hectares in the Yen Phong II-C Industrial Park.

Amkor Technology Vietnam CEO Kim Sung Hun, while speaking to Bac Ninh’s Party chief Nguyen Anh Tuan during a recent visit to the Amkor Technology Vietnam site, said that Amkor had selected the province for the mammoth project thanks to Bac Ninh's favorable investment environment, robust infrastructure, and synchronized utility networks that encompass electricity, water, and communications.

He added that Bac Ninh offers the necessary conditions to nurture talent and a highly skilled technical workforce, with positive support from the provincial leadership and local authorities.

Amkor was founded in 1968 by Korean businessman Hyang-Soo Kim. When Amkor received an investment certificate in November 2021 to build the state-of-the-art smart factory in Bac Ninh, Megan Faust, Amkor’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said: “Our investment for the first phase of the facility is estimated to be between $200 million and $250 million, and expanding the facility in phases over time will allow us to balance utilization and profitable growth and manage expansion within a reasonable capital intensity range.”

Samsung, which is the single largest foreign investor in Vietnam to date, has invested a total of $20 billion in the country. Last year, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced a total investment plan of $2.27 billion to expand its next-generation semiconductor substrate (FC-BGA) business.

In Bac Ninh, the Korean giant has two companies - Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV) and Samsung Display Vietnam (SDV). It operates Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT) in Thai Nguyen province, also in the north, and Samsung HCMC CE Complex (SEHC) in Ho Chi Minh City. The four Vietnam subsidiaries reported after-tax profits of KRW6,055.9 billion ($4.67 billion) in 2022, up 16.28% compared with 2021.

According to a recent report by the Bank of Korea (BOK), Vietnam is quickly becoming a significant market for South Korean semiconductor makers, who have been grappling with lackluster demand in China. As tensions between the U.S. and China accelerate, the bank emphasized the importance of diversifying export markets for industry giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

The BOK underlines Vietnam’s emergence as a new source of demand for South Korean semiconductors, highlighting the Southeast Asian country’s growing status as an international hub for IT device production and potentially positioning it as an alternative to China.

Vietnam’s abundant low-wage workforce and its proximity to the Chinese market are attracting global businesses, including South Korean firms, to establish manufacturing facilities in the new global production hub, according to the BOK report.

On Monday, SKC Co., a South Korean manufacturer of advanced materials, signed a preliminary agreement with Vietnam's Hai Phong City to explore potential investment in advanced materials for semiconductors, secondary batteries, and other green sectors. SKC said it will consider ways to invest in Hai Phong, a major port city and logistics hub in the north, as a site for the Korean firm’s expansion into high-tech materials.

At present, American giant chipmaker Intel is also considering an additional investment of $1 billion from the $1.5 billion previously announced in HCMC. The HCMC chip assembly and test factory is Intel's largest production base, accounting for around 70% of its global production.

In Bac Giang province near Bac Ninh (home to Amkor’s $1.6 billion semiconductor plant), Korea’s Hana Micron Inc., a printed circuit board maker, plans to increase the number of its Vietnamese factory workers to 3,000 by 2025.

The current number of employees has not been disclosed, but it is expected to be between 300 and 400. Hana Micron is continuously increasing technology development engineers and production personnel at its Vietnamese plant, a major production base for its global outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facility.

Hana Micron’s main customers are Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which is part of Korean conglomerate SK Group, the parent corporation of SKC Co.