Old chimneys and mottled pipelines, the old factories in Dashe Petrochemical Industrial Park have recently attracted many Japanese customers, hoping to invest in Kaohsiung and renovate these old production lines. This endless stream of Japanese businessmen turns out to be related to the smartphones in our hands.
In September this year, Japan's Tokuyama Chemical, one of the world's top suppliers of semiconductor chemicals, and Formosa Plastics announced that they would jointly establish a 50-50 joint venture, Formosa Plastics Tokuyama Precision Chemical, with an investment of 2.4 billion yuan to demolish the Kaohsiung Forest Park. A set of old production lines will be built into a new factory. The production of electronic grade IPA (isopropyl alcohol) will begin in September next year at the earliest. It is mainly used as a cleaning solvent in the wafer foundry process, and is targeting advanced wafer foundry within 5nm and 3nm. Process.
Then in October, Japan's Shin-Etsu Chemical announced that it would build a photoresist factory for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) in Taiwan. Another Japanese company, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, is also rumored to be building a factory in Taichung.
Huang Guowei, CEO of the High-Value Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan, confirmed that Taishe petrochemical companies have recently entered into a joint venture with Japanese companies to use old processes to recycle special chemicals for processing semiconductors, so that Taisha can not only produce wafer cutting products Lubricating fluid has also become a recycling park for semiconductor chemicals.
01 Semiconductor chemicals have exploded in growth and can pay back 2.4 billion in three years.
What attracts Japanese businessmen to flock here is the explosive business opportunity in Taiwan.
Originally, the annual demand for IPA in Taiwan was 34,000 tons, of which more than 10,000 tons were produced by local company Li Changrong Chemical, and Tokuyama in Japan produced in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, and then supplied to TSMC from Hsinchu and Yunlin packaging plants. The company sells about 20,000 tons a year to Taiwan.
However, this model of production in Japan and packaging in Taiwan can no longer meet the needs of semiconductor manufacturers in Taiwan. Lin Jiannan, chairman of Formosa Plastics Corporation, said, "Japan Tokuyama must have a second source of supply based on the requirements of Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Formosa Plastics has the advantage of a stable source of propylene, which is why the two parties hit it off. In addition, according to Japan Deshan estimates that the demand for electronic grade IPA in Taiwan will grow to 82,000 tons in 2025, with an average annual compound growth rate of 15.8%. "
This market is growing rapidly and is profitable. Formosa Plastics Deshan Precision Chemical's factory is expected to be built in September next year. Well, production will start in December, and we can earn NT$600 million a year. It only takes 3 years and 2 months to earn back the entire investment of 2.4 billion yuan. Compared with the petrochemical industry, which usually takes 10 or 15 years to recover the capital, it is more than three times faster. It can be called a good business.
02 24-hour uninterrupted service, 365 days a year
But this business is challenging. The first is that the demand for wafer foundry has doubled, and relevant suppliers must immediately expand their factories to meet the demand.
The second is that the service is becoming more and more real-time. If it is built in Japan and encounters increasing demand, I am afraid that there is a hidden worry that the fire far away cannot save the fire nearby, and it cannot be guaranteed to be foolproof so that the customer's production process will never be affected.
Take Changchun Group, which supplies wafer foundries, as an example. The Miaoli plant alone has more than 500 tank trucks dedicated to transporting chemicals for semiconductors. An average of 5 or 6 trucks are on the road an hour, 24/7, 365 days a year. There are six shifts every hour, and someone has to answer the phone at 2 or 3 o'clock in the middle of the night and be on call at any time to respond to customer needs. Even the storage tanks in the Miaoli factory in Changchun are marked with the code name 15B, which means that this is the warehouse of the wafer fab, not Changchun itself. Not only can we make it now and deliver it now, but we can also make safety stock for our customers.
03 Establishing a "complete cycle" from cradle to cradle
There is one more crucial point. Following the Changchun Group President Lin Shuhong visited the Miaoli factory, he walked into the conference room. In addition to the Changchun cadres, most of the people inside were TSMC employees. , are discussing how to achieve a new closed model of complete circulation to fulfill corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Changchun not only produces special chemicals, but also recovers chemical waste liquids from TSMC. After treatment and reprocessing, it is returned to TSMC for use, forming a closed system in which all materials are continuously circulated between producers and customers.
In the past, discarded waste liquids and waste solvents were handed over to waste dealers for disposal. Now they are returned to the original manufacturer and remade into original products, achieving a return from the cradle to the cradle.
This is actually very difficult. Take the electronic-grade isopropyl alcohol recently jointly produced by Formosa Plastics and Deshan as an example. After the petrochemical plant produces 82,000 tons, it needs to be diluted with pure water to 10% at the wafer factory before it can be used in the manufacturing process. It equals to 820,000 tons, equivalent to 382 standard swimming pools, or it would take 41,000 20-ton chemical tank trucks to transport it. If these trucks are lined up, they can be lined up from the beginning of Taiwan to the end of Taiwan, and the length is more than 400 meters. kilometer.
This is the key reason why Japanese businessmen must invest in Taiwan. If a complete cycle is established between Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture and Tainan Nanke, it means that a large amount of chemical waste liquid will have to be loaded to the dock and shipped to Japan. Then loading the truck to the factory requires a lot of energy for transportation. The originally environmentally friendly circular economy is no longer environmentally friendly.
In addition, many chemicals are highly dangerous. As long as they come into contact with the skin, they may be fatal within 5 to 30 minutes. There is no antidote, so you must immediately go to a professional hospital to have a chance of rescue, such as high-concentration electronic developers. Therefore, the simpler the cycle, the better, and the risk can be minimized.
04 The supplier war between Taiwan and Japan quietly started
As a result, Japanese businessmen came to Taiwan to invest or look for partners, and quietly staged a supplier war between Taiwan and Japan.
Originally, traditional petrochemical companies in Taiwan relied on the advantages of geographical relationships and local supply to strive to transform, upgrading from traditional plastics to more profitable semiconductor chemicals, such as Changchun Group and Li Changrong Chemical. Although the world's most advanced chemical processes are currently The formulas are all in the hands of Japanese or foreign companies, but the gap between Taiwan and Japanese companies is closing. If Japanese companies come to invest in Taiwan one after another, they may become competitors of Taiwan's petrochemical companies. A complete cycle like
is a requirement for large companies such as Apple, Google or TSMC to fulfill their social responsibilities. It has become an irreversible trend to not only reduce carbon emissions, but also to completely recycle and minimize waste. It has also allowed old petrochemical plants to find new life. The chimneys and pipelines remain the same, but the products and profitability have completely changed.
At the same time, the face of Taiwan has also changed. Because the quantity of these chemical liquids is not only huge, but more are coming back than leaving. In the future, it will be difficult not to encounter wafer foundry chemical tank trucks on the highway, forming a long queue, supporting Taiwan's economic lifeline.
Source: World Magazine
