South Korea's SKC signs deal with Hai Phong city for green, advanced materials investment

SKC Co., a South Korean manufacturer of advanced materials, signed a preliminary agreement on Monday with Vietnam's Hai Phong city to explore potential investment in advanced materials for secondary batteries, semiconductors, and other green sectors.

Under the memorandum of understanding, SKC 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, the Seoul-based company said in a release.

Hai Phong’s administration will assist SKC with its efforts to obtain incentives from the Vietnamese government and provide support for utilities and infrastructur should SKC decide to invest in the city, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Monday.

Hai Phong is part of the Hanoi-Hai Phong-Quang Ninh development triangle, and Korean giant LG Group has selected the major industrial and port city as its strategic location in Vietnam. About two hours from Hanoi, the city is home to three companies under the LG roof. LG Electronics Vietnam Hai Phong focuses on electronics, LG Innotek Vietnam Hai Phong supplies electronic components, while LG Display Vietnam Hai Phong manufactures LCD and OLED displays.

SKC, a unit under the energy-to-telecom conglomerate SK Group, says it is pivoting to an advanced materials company largely engaged in the manufacturing of copper foil used in lithium-ion cells, and is expanding into other advanced components like semiconductor packaging.

SKC announced on May 30 that it had joined hands with Korean major Posco Group in the cutting-edge electric vehicle battery materials sector. SKC said in a release that day that it is expanding its business presence across the entire spectrum of EV battery materials such as silicone-based cathode materials as the global leader of copper foil production for EV batteries.

Posco Group is completing a value chain ranging from raw materials for EV batteries to anode and cathode materials, the release said. Other next-generation materials are expected to create a powerful synergy through the two sides’ partnership.

“Posco Group is forging a series of partnerships with EV and battery makers one after another and the business partnership with SKC will drastically beef up competitiveness in the next-generation anode materials sector,” SKC said on May 30.

Regarding semiconductor development in Vietnam, the Southeast Asian country is poised to become a new chip design hub in the region. Germany-based Infineon Technologies AG, a global leader in automotive, power management, energy-efficient technology, and the Internet of Things (IoT), opened a center for chip development in Hanoi on May 31.

This facility will be a vital contributor to Infineon’s design & enabling services (DES) ambitious competency growth plans, the German firm said. It will also focus on microcontroller chip verification for automotive applications to support strong growth in the industry.

Amid the trend of semiconductor factories looking toward Southeast Asia as an alternative for production in China, U.S. chip vendor Marvell Technology announced on May 16 plans to establish a world-class design center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s economic powerhouse.

Last year, the U.S.-based electronic design automation company Synopsys started to expand its investment in Vietnam, announcing its commitment to training Vietnamese chip designers in HCMC.

American giant Intel was the first major corporation to start the chip-making process in Vietnam with a test and assembly facility based in HCMC, and has so far invested $1.5 billion in the country, with fresh investments in the pipeline.