Edwards Opens Factory in South Korea

Vacuum technology supplier Edwards of Crawley, UK, has opened a manufacturing facility in Cheonan, South Korea, to serve customers locally and worldwide. It invested approximately $100 million in the site, which is also a technical center. The factory will increase technical applications support in South Korea and enable the development of product derivatives and facilitate the introduction of new products. It will serve as a hub for the company’s growing range of dry vacuum pumps and systems for processes in the semiconductor, LCD, solar, LED and flat panel display markets. Expected to have a manufacturing capacity in excess of 25,000 units per year, the factory will employ 300 staff initially. The company expects the total number of employees in South Korea to be up to 700 in 2012.