South Korea: Still dependent on Japan for semiconductor raw materials: No Japan?
-Rebuttal to the Korean government of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun-
Korea:
It still depends on Japan for its semiconductor supply network.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun’s counterargument:
August 2nd, an article entitled “Semiconductors, Statistics Show Dependence on Japan-Lies of the Moon Administration”.
On July 2, President Moon Jae-in argued against the announcements made at the “Advisory Panel on the Outcomes of the Materials, Parts, and Equipment Industries of the Republic of Korea.”
First point:
First, he criticized the Korean government’s claim that EUV photoresist’s dependence on Japan has been cut in half.
In July 2019, Japan enforced export restrictions to South Korea.
Since then, the import value of South Korean photoresists from Belgium has increased tenfold.
The South Korean government explained that its dependence on Japan was less than 50%.
Imported Belgian photoresist:
However, Belgium imports photoresists from its JSR subsidiary in Japan.
After all, South Korea is still buying Japanese products.
If we expand the scope to the entire resist, the dependence on Japan still reaches 80%.
Second point:
He also countered the claim that “the dependence of polyimide fluoride used on displays on Japan has become virtually zero.”
The Korean government is in the position that “UTG (Ultra Thin Glass) has been adopted as an alternative material to polyimide fluoride.”
However, ultra-thin glass
Material used for Samsung’s folding smartphones.
Only 1% of the 300 million Samsung smartphones.
“99% of Korean smartphones use polyimide fluoride,” the Nikkei newspaper pointed out.
At the moment
It means that South Korea is still extremely dependent on Japan.
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