Shin-Etsu Chemical will spend about 30 billion yen (US$285 million) to increase the production capacity of semiconductor photoresist by 20% to expand the supply of key semiconductor materials for high-end chip manufacturing.
Shin-Etsu Chemical will build factories in Japan and Taiwan. Among them, the new plant in Yunlin County, Taiwan, China is expected to start producing photoresist compatible with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology in February 2021 to meet the needs of Taiwanese Apple supply chain customers such as TSMC.
In addition, its new plant in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, will start operations in February 2020. As the number of employees increases, the production capacity in Taiwan and Japan will increase by 60% and 20%, respectively.
In addition to Taiwanese customers, Shin-Etsu Chemical's expansion of production capacity will also meet customer needs in South Korea, Mainland China and other markets.
As the demand for chips in 5G equipment, data centers and other applications rises, the demand for photoresist is growing. Research firm Fuji Keizai predicts that from 2019 to 2024, the photoresist market will grow by 60% to approximately 250 billion yen.
In view of this, Shin-Etsu Chemical’s competitors JSR and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) are also producing EUV photoresists in Japan and overseas, and Sumitomo Chemical and Fujifilm are also preparing to enter the field.
In total, Japanese companies accounted for 80% of the global photoresist market, and Shin-Etsu Chemical alone accounted for 20%-30% of the market. The photoresists produced by this company are known for their high sensitivity and high efficiency.