SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said on Friday that the group will work to build a new semiconductor cluster in southwestern South Korea as soon as possible to meet rising global demand. According to Sina Finance, he made the remarks during an inspection of Gwangju Air Base in the Jeonnam-Gwangju area, where SK Hynix has proposed building a new chip cluster.

"Once conditions are in place, we plan to build it as soon as possible," Chey said. He added that chip demand is growing rapidly and that current conditions require faster supply to keep up with demand.

Chey said the start date for construction has yet to be determined, but he stressed that the group plans to break ground as soon as possible. He also said chip demand is expected to rise sharply and that the planned cluster would be about two-thirds the size of the cluster now under construction in Yongin, south of Seoul.

It was Chey's first visit to the area since SK Group announced the construction plan in June. Earlier this year, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics announced long-term investment projects in the area, including plans to build two new memory chip plants each. Gwangju Air Base was selected as the project site in July, and South Korea's government aims to begin mass production in 2030.