Governor Gretchen Whitmer joined a few hundred others at the opening of the SK Siltron CSS semiconductor wafer plant just west of Bay City on Thursday.
The plant’s opening is “the result of hard work, collaboration and courage,” Whitmer told a large crowd inside the plant just before taking part in a ribbon cutting at the ‘outside. The $300 million facility will employ up to 150 people within three years.
Whitmer noted that SK Siltron CSS chose the Monitor Township site, just south of US-10 off Mackinac Road, over potential sites in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and in North Carolina.
The Democratic governor said Michigan has a manufacturing workforce of 580,000 people and an unemployment rate of 4.2%, which Whitmer said is the lowest since February 2020.
“I believe in Michigan, and so does SK Siltron,” Whitmer said.
The Monitor Township plant joins another SK Siltron CSS plant already established northwest in Auburn, also in Bay County.
SK Siltron CSS, a US subsidiary of SK Siltron based in South Korea, expanded to over 200 employees from the 64 it had when SK Siltron acquired it from DuPont Electronics and Imaging.
SK Siltron CSS operates in 15 states and employs approximately 4,000 people, with plans to expand its US workforce to 20,000 by the end of 2025.
SK Siltron CSS manufactures a special silicon carbide insert that can be used in electric vehicles. These wafers are more efficient at handling high powers and conducting heat than normal silicon.
The Monitor Township plant joins another SK Siltron CSS plant already established northwest in Auburn, also in Bay County. SK Siltron CSS, a US subsidiary of SK Siltron based in South Korea, expanded to over 200 employees from the 64 it had when SK Siltron acquired it from DuPont Electronics and Imaging.
Dr. Jianwei Dong, CEO of SK Siltron CSS, said the two factories in Bay County will “lead the way” in manufacturing semiconductor chips for electric vehicles.
“Today marks a very important milestone for SK Siltron, for Bay City and for clean energy solutions,” he said.
Bay Future, Inc. President and CEO Trevor Keyes called the new facility “the single largest project by total investment” in Bay County’s modern era.
“It will have a significant, generational impact,” Keyes said. “This is a world-class, high-tech company. They could have picked anywhere (and they picked Bay County).”
U.S. Representative Dan Kildee, D-Flint, whose district includes Bay County, likened that expansion to the impact of auto manufacturing in Michigan 100 years ago.
“This part of the world, this part of the country, this part of the state has put the world on wheels,” Kildee said. “This moment is equal to that one.”
Dr. Jeong Joon Yu, Vice President of SK Group, gave those gathered an overview of the company’s footprint in the United States.
SK Siltron CSS operates in 15 states and employs about 4,000 people, with plans to expand its U.S. workforce to 20,000 by the end of 2025, Yu said.
State Rep. Annette Glenn, R-Midland, who represents parts of Midland and Bay counties, told the Daily News the new plant is “a huge regional blessing” and praised the fact that SK Siltron CSS s partners with Delta College to form the SK Employees.
“(Going forward) we will look back and understand how important (this development) is,” said Glenn, who is running for the state’s 35th Senate District which includes Midland, Saginaw and Bay City. .
At the press conference after the ribbon cutting, Kildee acknowledged that the new facility will not solve the shortage of semiconductor chips in the short term, but that it is an important step towards achieving it. long term.
“This long-term strategy gives short-term confidence,” he said. “But to be fair, the token shortage (won’t end just yet). It’s not an immediate solution.”