Merck to grow speciality gases

Merck KGaA has reached an agreement with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to support a €300 million investment to expand its semiconductor manufacturing site in Hometown (pictured) by further develop the world's largest integrated speciality gases facility. About 68 new jobs will be created.

This is part of the Electronics business sector’s Level Up growth programme, which envisages spending over €3 billion in innovation and capacity expansion projects in the US, Germany and Asia by the end of 2025. Other investments to date and ongoing include:

* A new factory in Greater Phoenix, Arizona, for equipment for Merck’s Delivery Systems & Services (DS&S) business, due to be complicated in 1H 2023

* A new DS&S facility in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

* The China Electronics Technology Centre and a production facility for organic light-emitting diode materials in Shanghai

* Acquiring the chemical business of Mecaro, which has since broken ground on a second facility in Kaohsiung to produce speciality gases and semiconductor materials for thin film and structuring applications as of 2025

“Despite near-term cautions due to the industry’s cyclical nature, the demand for semiconductor materials remains very promising long term,” said Kai Beckmann, CEO of the Electronics business sector. “Having domestic production capacity for critical electronics components has become a high priority for many economies.”