In tie-up with SK Materials of Korea, Showa Denko is going to produce SPG in North America. On June 29, both companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding and started discussion aiming for a local production.

Showa Denko established an SPG business base in North America for the second time following the Showa Chemicals of America (SCA) located in Austin of Texas in 2017.

Since the establishment of SCA, Showa Denko has been promoting the sales of SPG gases in full scale in the U.S.

In the U. S., however, semiconductor majors like Intel and Samsung keep investing actively, and further expansion of the market is surely presumed.

Showa Denko has so far been exporting the products made in its Asian production bases to the U.S., but to cope with the booming market needs and for a stable supply by the local production, the company has come to decide the local production at this time.

At present, the company is just at the examining stage toward a collaborated business, and concrete decisions will be made from now on. It is anticipated that locations and the types of gases to meet the aforesaid semiconductor makers’ investments will be selected.

In 2017, Showa Denko and SK Materials established a joint venture named SK Showa Denko to produce and sell high-purity gases for semiconductor in Korea, and in addition they also produced CH3F locally and from July the production of HBr started, which has tightened their relationship.
In the U.S., it seems that a new company jointly invested will produce SPG gases locally.