Merck Korea has initiated personnel and organizational restructuring at 10 major domestic business sites. They are trying to improve their corporate structure in a major way, ahead of a 600 million euro (about 800 billion won) domestic investment for three years,starting this year. It is interpreted as laying the foundationfor significantly increasing the domestic production capacity of semiconductors and display materials.
Merck Korea is pushing for organizational changes such as transferring general personnel at domestic business sites such as Pyeongtaek, Sihwa, Anseong, Banwol, and Ulsan, and appointing a new chief safety officer. As the production capacity of electronic materials such as semiconductors and displays expands in Korea, they are trying to establish a new operating system that breaks away from the existing management method.
An official from Merck Korea said, "We are seeking changes that center aroundthe factories (business sites) that produce materials," adding, "We are reorganizing the organizational structure centering on the general manager of the business site."
The organizational change is expected to take into account large-scale Korean investments. Merck plans to make a large-scale domestic investment worth 800 billion won for three years starting this year. They are going to expand its componentsplant for liquid crystal display (LCD) testing and its light emitting materials plant for organic light emitting diodes (OLED).
They are also expected to invest heavily in the semiconductor material sector. Currently, close investment discussions are in progress between the German headquarters and Merck Korea. It is said that they are in the process of specifying the investment field and scale.
Organizational change is interpreted as a preliminary work to lay the foundations for selection, focus, and new expansion ahead of a large-scale investment. As the focus shifted from overseas imports to local production in Korea, organizational changes were necessary to match the mass production system of domestic business sites.
After opening the Korea Advanced Technology Center (K-ATeC) in Pyeongtaek in 2020, Merck Korea is strengthening their massproduction system for semiconductor and display materials. In particular, they are producing various semiconductor materials in Korea in response to the rapidly growing semiconductor market. They completed their chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurry production facility for polishing semiconductor wafers at the end of last year.
Domestic production is set to begin in the first half of this year. They are also planning to produce the cleaning solution used in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) process. Recently, they established mass production infrastructure and product tests are being conductedwith customers. These products have been entirely dependent on imports.
Merck Korea plans to significantly expand their domestic production capacity and their contact points with customers. Kai Beckmann, CEO of Merck Electronics, said in an interview with Electronic Times last year, "Merck recognizes that Korea is a big driving force in the electronics industry (semiconductor and display, etc.)" and "Merck's goal is to become the most localized global partner and we plan to build long-lasting trusting relationships with our Korean customers.”
By staff reporter Dong-joon Kwon (djkwon@etnews.com)