Merck Korea completes construction of OLED facility in Pyeongtaek

Home > Business > Tech

Merck Korea completes construction of OLED facility in Pyeongtaek

Published: 09 Jun. 2022, 19:12 Updated: 09 Jun. 2022, 19:22

From left: Chung Do-young, director-general for economic planning at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government; Kim Woo-kyu, managing director at Merck Korea; and Choi Won-yong, deputy mayor of Pyeongtaek City pose for photos during a completion ceremony of Merck Korea's organic light-emitting diode (OLED) facility construction in Gyeonggi on Wednesday. [MERCK KOREA]

Merck Korea completed the additional construction of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) manufacturing facility in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, the tech company said Thursday.

The completion comes two years after Merck Korea, the Korean branch of the German science company, signed an agreement with Gyeonggi to invest 20 million euros ($21.4 million) in additional facilities in its Poseung plant in Gyeonggi in October 2020.

Korean clients will be able to receive their products much faster with the new facility, as opposed to when the OLED panels had to travel thousands of miles from Merck’s plant in Darmstadt, Germany.

“Korea is an important innovation and production hub for Merck,” said Michael Heckmeier, head of display solutions at Merck, in a statement.

“As the OLED market continues to grow not only in TV and smartphones but also in various mobile applications such as tablets and laptops, we believe this investment will support our customers to drive innovations in the display industry faster and more efficiently.”

Merck has been expanding its investments in Korea in the recent years. It built the OLED Synthesis and Materials Development Center in 2011 and the OLED Applications Center in 2015.

Last year, Merck announced it will invest 600 million euros in Korea, which is “one of the key focus countries for investments at Merck,” according to a press release.

BY YOON SO-YEON [[email protected]]