Hyosung to Expand NF3 Business in S. Korea, China

Hyosung announced on Jan. 11 that it will raise the production of Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) by building and adding NF3 production facilities in China and Korea. NF3 is a gas that manufacturers of electronic parts, such as semiconductors, LCDs and solar batteries, use as a cleaning agent for their manufacturing equipment

Hyosung will sink about 200 billion won (US$165.77 million) into Quzhou, a city in southwestern Zhejiang province in China, to build a new NF3 production plant with an annual production capacity of 2,500 tons by the first half of 2017. In addition, it will invest 100 billion won (US$82.88 million) in its third Ulsan plant to raise the plant’s production by 1,250 tons a year. The Ulsan plant’s new production line will start commercial production in March this year.

Cho Hyun-Joon, president of Hyosung Group, said, “The construction of a new plant in China is our strategic move to preemptively respond to the Chinese market’s exploding demand for semiconductors and displays.”

In a bid to promote the semiconductor industry, China announced the large-scale investment plan worth 176 trillion won (US$145.88 billion) in total in 2015, and is also proceeding the plan to raise the consumption of products made by Chinese semiconductor manufacturers to US$100 billion (120.65 trillion won) by 2025.

Starting with the new and additional production facilities in China and Korea, Hyosung plans to invest 600 billion won (US$497.31 million) in Korea and China in the next 10 years and secure a total annual production capacity of 10,000 tons at home and abroad. Ten thousand tons of NF3 accounts for nearly 43 percent in global demands according to the projected demand of 23,000 tons in 2018.

Meanwhile, Hyosung has developed and commercialized the process of NF3 gas with purity of over 99.995 percent with its own research. With the expansion into the Chinese market, the company aims to position itself as the world’s number two company in the NF3 business, the state-of-the-art material in the chemical sector.