SEMICON Korea defies chip industry downturn

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Business

Sat, September 23, 2023 | 00:53

Tech

SEMICON Korea defies chip industry downturn

Posted : 2023-02-03 15:43

Updated : 2023-02-05 13:27

Visitors fill the venue of the SEMICON Korea exhibition held at COEX convention center in Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

Industry officials, jobseekers flock to chip exhibition to see latest trend

By Baek Byung-yeul

SEMICON Korea, an annual semiconductor exhibition, has proven that the industry has unlimited growth potential despite currently being overshadowed by its worst-ever slump, as many industry officials and jobseekers filled the exhibition hall on Friday, the last day of the three-day event.

Hosted by SEMI, an industry association, the event had been held online since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year's SEMICON Korea came as a full-scale offline event in Seoul, featuring around 450 companies from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Europe and the United States.

The exhibition, which took place on the first and third floors of the COEX convention center, was crowded with thousands of visitors starting early in the morning. Visitors wearing name tags of their companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix went around to booths to explore new technologies in the industry.

Despite big companies struggling with decreased demand for semiconductors in the second half of last year, an industry official expressed confidence that continuous investments would be made in the industry through this exhibition.

"I have participated in this event for more than a decade and this is the first time I have felt that there are so many people. I heard that some suppliers located far from Seoul sent hundreds of employees to the venue by bus to let them explore the latest trends," an industry official at the venue said on condition of anonymity.

"Although the chip market has been struggling for a while now, the number of applications that require semiconductors will increase and the related parts, materials and equipment suppliers will be able to receive more orders."

As well as officials based in Korea, overseas officials also said they were able to reaffirm the bright future of the semiconductor industry by visiting the exhibition.

"At the SEMICON Korea, I see the great energy. I asked myself where the recession is. Everybody sees the long term and believes there will be such a strong long-term opportunity," said Anand Nambiar, executive vice president and head of Semiconductor Material Solutions and Electronics Business at Merck.

As the participants felt, SEMI also expects the global semiconductor market to more than double over the next 10 years. Cho Hyun-dae, president of SEMI Korea, estimated more than 60,000 visitors visited during the three days.

Visitors take a look a promotional booth of the Netherland's chip equipment maker ASML during the SEMICON Korea exhibition held at the COEX convention center in Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

Global semiconductor companies such as ASML, Tokyo Electron and KLA set up counseling spaces for recruitment at their booths, as the chip industry has been working to recruit more engineers to get ahead of their competitors.

Most visitors were industry officials but university students looking for their future jobs also visited the exhibition venue.

"I visited the venue with my friends to see what kinds of companies are taking part in the exhibition. We knew the names of big companies like Samsung and SK, but we could see that there are so many companies that supply parts, materials and equipment to these big firms through this exhibition," a university student majoring in electrical engineering said on condition of anonymity. "I had opportunities to talk with officials from many semiconductor companies. Especially I had talks with officials from Japanese companies such as Tokyo Electron and I was able to get advice from Korean officials of the Japanese firms on how to join these companies."

baekby@koreatimes.co.kr