Monday, 26 March 2018, 12:30 HKT/SGT

TOKYO, Mar 26, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Showa Denko ("SDK"; TSE:4004) has expanded its capacity to produce high-purity hydrogen bromide (HBr), which is used in the manufacture of semiconductors, and started operation of the expanded HBr plant in this March.

High-purity HBr is a specialty gas mainly used for fine-etching of polysilicon in the manufacturing processes of semiconductors including DRAMs and NAND flash memories. The demand for high-purity HBr has been increasing due to ongoing expansion of the market for semiconductors caused by acceleration in digitalization, such as the progress in the fields of IoT, big data analysis, and automatic driving.

SDK had a plant to synthesize and purify HBr which had capacity to produce 600 tons a year. However, the plant had been maintaining high operating rate. Therefore, anticipating further increase in the demand for high-purity HBr, SDK expanded the capacity to 900 tons a year, 1.5 times as much as the previous level.

SDK's business to produce and sell high-purity gases for electronics has a history of nearly 40 years, and customers acclaim our technologies for purification, analysis and quality control built up over many years. As the only company which produces and sells diverse high-purity gases including fluoric, chloric, bromic, and ammoniac gases, SDK offers ideal gases for production processes of its customers.

SDK positions its business to produce and sell high-purity gases for electronics as "Growth-accelerating business" in the ongoing medium-term business plan, "Project 2020+." We will continue responding quickly to the expansion of the market for electronics, and strengthening and scaling up our high-purity gas business.

About Showa Denko K.K.

Showa Denko K.K. ("SDK"; TSE:4004, US:SHWDF) is a major manufacturer and marketer of chemical products serving a wide range of fields ranging from heavy industry to the electronic and computer industries. The Petrochemicals Sector provides cracker products such as ethylene and propylene, the Chemicals Sector provides industrial and high-performance gases and chemicals and high-purity gases and chemicals for the semiconductor industry, and the Inorganics Sector provides ceramics products such as alumina, abrasive, refractory and graphite electrodes and fine carbon products. Today, the Aluminum Sector provides aluminum materials and high-value-added fabricated aluminum, the Electronics Sector provides HD media, compound semiconductors such as ultra high-bright LEDs and rare earth magnetic alloys, and the Advanced Battery Materials Department (ABM) provides lithium-ion battery components. For more information, please visit www.sdk.co.jp/english/.

Contact:

Public Relations Office
Phone: 81-3-5470-3235

Mar 26, 2018 12:30 HKT/SGT
Source: Showa Denko K.K.
Showa Denko K.K. (TSE: 4004)
Topic: Press release summary
Sectors: Electronics
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