Can China's hydrofluoric acid replace Japan and support Korean semiconductors?

The semiconductor material dispute between Japan and South Korea has unexpectedly sparked a high level of market attention to the electronic chemicals industry. Electronic chemicals have a wide range of products and technologies, including gases, various metals, plastics, resins, ceramics, ordinary and high-purity organic or inorganic compounds and mixtures.

The technical scope covers photosensitive chemistry, electrochemistry, high temperature plasma physics, laser radiation reaction and polymerization molding, etc. Electronic chemical products can be divided into several categories according to their uses, such as chemicals for IC, chemicals for PCB, and chemicals for panels.

According to market rumors, South Korean semiconductors are seeking help from China, especially in the field of hydrofluoric acid. There are reports that China will provide support to South Korea in this field. Is this really enough?

In this article, we introduce the market development of electronic grade hydrofluoric acid, photoresist, and OLED materials in detail.

Electronic grade hydrofluoric acid is a type of fluorine fine chemical, mainly used to remove oxides. It is one of the most widely used electronic chemicals in the semiconductor manufacturing process. The upstream raw material of electronic grade hydrofluoric acid is fluorite, which is formed into hydrofluoric acid after a series of processing.

According to statistics from China Industry Information Network, China's electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid production capacity was 80,000 tons in 2011, and increased to 240,000 tons in 2018. In terms of capacity utilization, due to the impact of environmental protection policies, China's hydrofluoric acid capacity utilization has declined sharply since 2008, and the capacity utilization rate in 2013 and 2014 was less than 50%.

(Source: China Industry Information Network) China's electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid production capacity

However, with the rapid growth of China's semiconductor industry, the demand for electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid has increased, driving the rapid development of the electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid industry. In 2017 and 2018, the hydrofluoric acid production capacity utilization rate rebounded to more than 60%.

(Source: China Industry Information Network) China's hydrofluoric acid production capacity utilization rate

Electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid is mainly used in fields such as IC, solar energy and liquid crystal display. The largest application market is the IC industry, accounting for about 47.3% of the total consumption of electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid; followed by solar energy production capacity, accounting for 22.1%; and the liquid crystal display industry accounts for 18.3%.

In the IC industry, hydrofluoric acid is used to clean the surface of wafers, or in cleaning and etching processes during chip processing. As for the solar industry, hydrofluoric acid is used in chip surface cleaning and etching processes. Finally, in the panel industry, hydrofluoric acid is used to clean glass substrates and as an etching agent for silicon nitride and silicon dioxide.

In addition, in order to curb overcapacity in the industry, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced relevant measures in 2011 to limit the production capacity of small hydrofluoric acid. As a result, high-purity electronic-grade hydrogen fluoride has flourished under the circumstances that the hydrogen fluoride industry has been frequently restricted.

(Source: China Industry Information Network) Summary of the capacity of China's electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid enterprises under construction or planned to be built (tons/year)

Photoresist is a light-sensitive mixed liquid composed of photosensitive resin, photoinitiator, additives and solvent. Among photoresists, photosensitive resin is the most critical.

After being exposed to light, the photosensitive resin can quickly undergo a photocuring reaction in the exposed area, causing significant changes in the material's physical properties, especially solubility and affinity. After being treated with an appropriate solvent and dissolving the soluble part, the desired circuit image can be obtained.

Based on different application fields, photoresists can be generally divided into three categories: IC photoresists, PCB photoresists, and LCD photoresists. Among them, PCB accounts for 24% of the global market, IC accounts for 24%, and LCD accounts for 27%.

China's photoresist industry is mainly concentrated in the low-end PCB field, with PCB photoresist accounting for 94.4% of the market. As for LCD photoresist, the market share is only 2.7%, and IC photoresist is the lowest at 1.6%.

According to statistics, China's photoresist production reached 75,600 tons in 2017, an increase of 2,900 tons from 2016. Among them, the output of Chinese domestic factories was 44,100 tons, which is far from China's demand of 79,900 tons, indicating that the supply capacity of Chinese domestic factories is still insufficient.

(Source: Zhiyan Consulting) China’s domestic photoresist production (10,000 tons)

With the rapid development of China's panel and semiconductor industries, the market estimates that China's demand for photoresists will have the opportunity to exceed 272,000 tons in 2022.

(Source: Zhiyan Consulting) China’s photoresist demand (10,000 tons)

OLED is a multi-layered organic electroluminescent component, the core structure of which is the cathode and anode, with a light-emitting layer sandwiched between them. At the same time, in order to enhance the structural performance of the component, an electron and hole injection layer, an electron and hole transport layer, and an electron and hole blocking layer are introduced, ultimately forming an organic electroluminescent component with a multi-layered structure.

At present, China's OLED materials are still mainly intermediates and other products with low technical content, and patent issues are the main reason restricting the localization of China's light-emitting materials.

Due to the high technical barriers of the core patents of OLED terminal materials, the production capacity is mainly concentrated in the hands of manufacturers in South Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States, which also forms a monopoly market. The Chinese OLED intermediate suppliers include Wanrun Shares, Ruilian New Materials, and Aglaya.

In 2016, the global market demand for OLED terminal materials was approximately 39.65 tons. The market estimates that by 2020, the global OLED panel supply area will reach 43.46 million square meters, and the corresponding terminal material demand will reach approximately 180 tons.

Source: Juheng.com . If copyright is involved, please contact us to delete it.

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