Daegu City Goes All Out to Expand Production Base for Key AI Semiconductor Components

【Financial News, Daegu = Kim Jang-wook, reporter】Daegu City is going all out to expand its production base for key semiconductor components for artificial intelligence (AI), building on the attraction of manufacturing facilities by a world-leading producer of high-layer-count printed circuit boards (PCBs).
Daegu City signed an investment agreement with ISU Petasys Co., Ltd. and Dalseong County on the afternoon of the 2nd at City Hall in Sangyeok to build Plant 7 in the Daegu National Industrial Complex.
The agreement, the largest investment under the ninth locally elected administration, will see ISU Petasys Co., Ltd. invest 500 billion won to build a new plant on a 168,000-square-meter site (51,000 pyeong) in the Daegu National Industrial Complex.
The agreement is particularly significant because it was drawn up to proactively respond to rising demand for high-performance printed circuit boards as global big tech companies increase their AI investments, and to support the company’s continued growth.
Mayor Choo Kyung-ho emphasized, "This investment by ISU Petasys will be an important opportunity to expand the production base for key semiconductor components in the AI era and strengthen Daegu’s competitiveness in advanced manufacturing," adding, "We will spare no support to help the company leverage the growth opportunities opened up by the AI era and build a powerful ‘economic moat’ that no one can challenge."
Since its establishment in 1972 at the Daegu Dalseong 1st Industrial Complex, ISU Petasys has grown alongside Daegu for many years as a true ‘Daegu company.’ Its Plants 1 through 5 are currently located in the Dalseong 1st Industrial Complex, and Plant 6 is in the Dalseong 2nd Industrial Complex.
ISU Petasys CEO Choi Chang-bok said, "The city showed a strong commitment to providing infrastructure in line with the investment schedule, and the swift support provided through Daegu City’s one-stop corporate investment support system, which we had experienced before, played a major role in our investment decision."
Key factors behind ISU Petasys’ decision to make another large-scale investment in Daegu are said to include the city’s proactive efforts to create a favorable investment environment: advancing infrastructure expansion—including electricity and water supplies and wastewater treatment—in line with the company’s investment schedule, and expediting administrative procedures such as permits through its one-stop corporate investment support system.
Meanwhile, the city is proactively expanding infrastructure in the Daegu National Industrial Complex to support this large-scale investment. It plans to double the treatment capacity of the complex’s wastewater treatment plant (from 5,000 to 10,000 tons per day) and upgrade the treatment process to ease companies’ burden of treating high-concentration wastewater themselves when it is generated during production processes in advanced industries such as semiconductors and secondary batteries.
It will also pursue improvements to the investment subsidy system to respond to the fast-growing demand for investment in advanced industries and reflect companies’ actual investment conditions.
Meanwhile, the city plans to proactively address business regulations and difficulties to create a stable investment environment.
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