ASML CEO Peter Wennink met with South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol at the Presidential Office in Yongsan, Seoul, in the afternoon of July 28th, and Yoon asked for cooperation in semiconductors in the meeting, according to Korean media Chosun Biz, citing a press briefing from the South Korea President's office.
During the meeting, Yoon gave Wennink a promotional brochure and said the Korean government is willing to provide maximum investment incentives, so he hoped that the specific contents contained in the brochure would be of practical help in investment review.
The official briefing said it was the second meeting between Yoon and Wennink in 12 months. The previous time they met was on the occasion of the Korea-Netherlands summit in November 2022.
Yoon highly praised the status of ASML, and called for strengthening competitiveness and expanding cooperation, according to the report. He hoped that the Hwaseong Semiconductor Cluster would contribute to strengthening the domestic semiconductor industry ecosystem by becoming a center for strengthening collaboration between domestic materials/parts/equipment companies and ASML in the future.
Wennink agreed on the necessity and importance of global cooperation for the expansion and development of the semiconductor industry ecosystem. He positively evaluated the growth of Korean semiconductor companies and the investment conditions in Korea. Wennink also expressed that ASML hopes to continue discussing ways to cooperate in semiconductor investment.
South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix are two big customers for ASML. The Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturing company held a groundbreaking ceremony for the creation of the "ASML Semiconductor Equipment Cluster" in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do on November 16, 2022.
This cluster is scheduled to be completed in 2025 with a remanufacturing and training center through an investment of about KRW240 billion.
