Merck KGaA has broken ground for a new production facility on a 150,000 m² site for its Semiconductor Solutions business at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It will produce speciality gases and semiconductor materials for thin film and patterning from 2025 onwards.

Semiconductor Solutions has been designated as one Merck’s ‘Big 3’ growth drivers. It forms part of the Electronics business sector, which started its ‘Level Up’ growth programme in 2021 with the aim of investing “significantly more than €3 billion” in innovations and capacity expansion projects by 2025.

Merck KGaA has revealed at its latest Capital Markets Day that it will continue to focus on its ‘Big Three’ businesses of Process Solutions and Life Science Services, new products in Healthcare and the Semiconductor Solutions arm.

By 2025, these are expected to generate about 80% of targeted sales growth, and more than 50% of total sales. The company remains on track to achieve its mid-term growth target of €25 billion that year and expects to increase sales organically by at least 6%/year on average, about €1 billion/year.

At its virtual capital markets day on 9 September, Merck KGaA announced that it aims to increase group sales by 6%/year to about €25 billion/year by 2025. To this end, investment, which will increase by 50% in the  years 2021-2025 compared to 2016-2020.

“We will continue to consistently and purposefully invest in areas that make us strong,” said CEO and executive board chair Belén Garijo (pictured). Merck will also seek targeted acquisitions, which are most likely to be small to medium-sized.