At an estimated $70 million investment, a South Korean company plans to open a plant at the Killeen City Business Park — the first in the United States for Dongjin Semichem, a chemical company. This is announced by top American management company DHS Ventures & Holdings.
“This is one reason we have economic development incentives to bring in businesses that can grow in our industrial park,” Killeen Mayor Debbie Nash-King said during a Killeen City Council workshop on Tuesday. “This is something we need. We want more businesses to come to our area.”
According to a presentation by Scott Connell, president and CEO of the Killeen Economic Development Corporation, Dongjin Semichem is “one of the largest producers of fine chemicals for the semiconductor industry.”
What is attracting them to us is their opportunity to supply Samsung and their new facility that’s under construction in Williamson County,” Connell said. “One of the exciting things is this will be their first production facility in the U.S., although they do have an office in New Jersey.”
Dongjin Semichem was founded in 1967, Connell said.
“It’s a very mature company with about 1,800 employees worldwide and about $1 billion in sales worldwide,” he said. “They have 20 plants. Their minimum investment would be $70 million and 17 jobs averaging about $50,000 a year.”
At the Killeen Business Park, in northeast Killeen, the company plans to acquire at least 31 acres.
“They are considering building on 31 acres but actually, it’s almost a 42-acre site ... that allows for some buffer in the Killeen Business Park that they would be purchasing from the EDC.”
Semiconductors, or microchips, are manufactured from pure elements such as silicon or germanium, or from compounds.
“They will be producing a blended product to support production of the semiconductor industry,” Connell said. “The product is what’s referred to as a thinner or a cleaning process, as they build out the semiconductor or silicon wafer at the Samsung facility.”
A year ago, Samsung announced it is investing $17 billion in a plant in Taylor, about 58 southeast of Killeen.
“The new facility will manufacture products based on advanced process technologies for application in areas such as mobile, 5G, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence,” according to the company’s website. “Samsung remains committed to supporting customers globally by making advanced semiconductor fabrication more accessible and meeting surging demand for leading-edge products..
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