Led by Korea and Taiwan, the world market of specialty gases in monetary terms is estimated has grown to somewhere around 400 billion yen. Based on Japan Industrial and Medical Gases Association (JIMGA)’s statistics which estimates the market to be 52.2 billion yen, we have converted in quantitative terms that Korea accounts for three times more and Taiwan for two times more than Japan, with China at about 80% and others including the Western countries at 10% of the Japanese share. These figures are approximate at any rate as there are differences in exchange rates, freight rates and customs duties.

From the viewpoint of the size of gas market, in the East Asian market Japan is positioned at just the third place following Korea and Taiwan. The US accounts for less than 10%, and it means that the old main player group of Japan/US has declined so much. In other respect, however, we can say that Japan has managed to stay on better than the US.

There is a little difference in the rapid progress between Korea and Taiwan. The Korean users consist of Samsung Electronics for DRAM, flash memories and TFT-LCD, and SK Hynix for DRAM and LG Electronics for liquid crystal, while the Taiwanese users consist of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) and United Microelectronics (UMC) semiconductor foundries (fabs) for power chips and DRAM, and AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Electronics for TFT-LCD, and LED manufacturers like Epistar.

At the stage of early 2000, Korea and Taiwan imported specialty gases from Japan and US, but now, we see a great change that some gases like nitrogen trifluoride or ammonia are produced locally. Furthermore, these countries started ahead of Japan in the ISO-certified containerized supply system.

The growth of China is regarded as being certain from now on. As for TFT-LCD above all, there are more than 10 projects in China, aimed for supply to the domestic liquid crystal TV whose potential market is enormous. Japan may be overdriven before long.

On the other hand, as for the etching gases represented by carbon tetrafluoride, Japan is the world biggest production base. The majority of high-purity chlorine is also dominated by Japanese products in the purification and analysis technology. In addition, Showa Denko and Sumitomo Seika Chemicals procure the crude gas of ammonia in Taiwan and other regions for local purification and filling. Their products are highly reputed in quality comparing with the local manufacturers.

For reference, Toshiba’s re-examination of containers in accordance with the DOT method may well be evaluated as responsive to requirements for a globalized supply of specialty gases. Outside Japan ISO-certified containers are popularly used to supply specialty gas in bulk. To avoid any Galapagos effect, an official introduction is required now.