Electronics

Vietnam reported on August 11 that South Korea’s Samsung Electronics plans to start producing semiconductor products in Vietnam next year, and Vietnam is expected to become a new “foothold” for the semiconductor industry.

Samsung Electronics CEO Roh Tae-moon announced two important messages during his recent working visit to Vietnam. This year, Samsung will invest another 3.3 billion US dollars to continue to expand its business in Vietnam. At the same time, it will test the production of FC-BGA high-performance semiconductor packaging substrates in Taiyuan Province in northern Vietnam, and plans to officially start mass production in July 2023.

In fact, part of the $3.3 billion investment pledge announced by Roh Tae-wen has been fulfilled, including $841 million for Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex (SEHC) and $1.187 billion for Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Vietnam ) Ltd. (Samsung Electro-Mechanics).

With plans to manufacture semiconductor components in Vietnam, Samsung Electro-Mechanics appears to be in the spotlight. The factory has also been expanding its investment efforts recently.

In 2019, Samsung announced an increase in investment in the semiconductor business to $151 billion. Lee Jae-yong, vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, announced at the time that it would become the world's No. 1 manufacturer in the non-memory sector by 2030. Since then, Samsung has continued to invest in this area to compete with Intel in the United States and TSMC in Taiwan.

During Lee Jae-yong’s visit to Vietnam in 2020, Vietnamese government leaders expressed the hope that Samsung would invest in the semiconductor field in Vietnam after household appliances and smartphones to form a closed chain of electronic product production in Vietnam. This year, Prime Minister Pham Minh Cheng emphasized this point again when Roh Thai Wen visited Vietnam.

Recently, more and more investors are interested in this area of the Vietnamese market. Intel is a typical example.

As one of the world's three major chip giants (TSMC, Samsung Electronics and Intel), Intel invested 1 billion US dollars to build a chip assembly and testing plant in Vietnam many years ago. Until now, the factory is still an important production base for Intel Group.

In the recent meeting with Vietnamese leaders, Intel leaders emphasized that they will expand the scale of investment in Vietnam, and the investment amount is several times higher than before.

Intel Group CEO Pat Kissinger said in a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Teng in May this year that Vietnam is a dynamic economy with a potential market of nearly 100 million people, making it an attractive destination for investors. That's why Intel decided to continue investing in Vietnam at a scale several times its current size.

Besides Intel, many investors also plan to invest in the manufacture of semiconductor equipment and components in Vietnam. These include South Korea's Amkor, which plans to invest $1.6 billion; and South Korean semiconductor company Hana Micron, which plans to invest $500 million. In addition, there are Renesas, Applied Micro, Splendid, Sonion and other companies, but the project scale is relatively small.