Author | Qinglime
preface
"Now there is a price for two or three days, and the price fluctuates a lot."
In the face of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Kemet calmly chose to increase prices. According to the company's official statement, the company's special gases are mainly sold abroad, and the quotations of foreign companies are also higher than those in China. Price increases are the most normal reaction.
As a buffer gas, neon gas can be seen as the "blade" of the lithography machine: after the rare gas is mixed, it produces an electron transition under high pressure conditions, releasing photons, which are converted into lasers through the medium. It is like a blade rubbing against a whetstone, becoming exceptionally sharp. Thus "scraping off" the photoresist.
Unfortunately, Ukraine controls 70% of the world's supply of neon gas. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is likely to mean that there is no neon gas.
Without neon, there would be no blade. Without blades, the lithography machine would strike. After the lithography machine strike, the global semiconductor supply will be disrupted.
Kemet's reaction is not wrong, and the most panicked now may be the semiconductor companies.
The neon gas of Ukraine relies on picking up leaks
The history of Ukraine's development in the special gas industry can be summarized in eight words: the big brother eats meat, and the little brother drinks soup.
Industrial gases can be simply divided into air separation gases, special gases and synthesis gases according to different sources. The neon gas that has sparked discussions about the situation in Russia and Ukraine belongs to the special gases in industrial gases. Whether it is separating the air composition or chemically synthesizing gases. Both are inseparable from the support of industrial production, especially the energy and chemical industry and the steel industry.
Ukraine could not have produced so much crude oil and steel out of thin air, and its gas industry was thus the industrial division of labor system of the former Soviet Union: according to the industrial distribution at that time, Ukraine had high-tech industries represented by electronics, chemicals, and shipbuilding, and digested the heavy industrial capacity within the Soviet Union.
Whether it is steel or oil and gas production, industrial gases represented by oxygen and synthetic ammonia are produced. Roughly processed gas products are also "deep processed" in Ukraine to produce synthetic gases and noble gases. The IN-16 glow tubes produced in the former Soviet Union need to be filled with a large amount of neon gas inside, and the production place of these glow tubes is precisely the Gazotron factory in Ukraine.
(Represents the glow tube of the nostalgic style, but is actually the crystallization of the air separation industry)
In addition to neon, Ukraine also supplies 30% of the world's xenon and 40% of krypton. The "Lithuanian laser equipment" that was previously popular on social media also needs these rare gases to function properly. Ukraine's key identity in the gas industry is also evident.
Ukraine's global specialty gases industry was nothing more than a side dish of the Soviet industrial feast.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the situation in Eastern Europe changed dramatically. However, the industrial division of labor system between Russia and Ukraine has not been completely overthrown. Therefore, the source of materials for the production of special gases in Ukraine is still Russia's crude gas products. Even if we do not consider the current "special military operations", the gas supply of the global semiconductor industry has always been hanging the knife of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
During the Crimean incident in 2015, the market price of neon gas in China rose from 750 yuan / cubic meter at the beginning of the year to 25,000 yuan / cubic meter in mid-July. Baichuan Yingfu data shows that the domestic price of neon gas (content of 99.99%) has risen from 400 yuan / cubic meter in October last year to more than 1600 yuan / cubic meter.
In the face of possible supply chain shocks, semiconductor giants have chosen to hedge. In an interview on Feb. 23, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrottera confidently said, "Micron has a small percentage of its rare gases coming from Ukraine, but we have multiple sources of supply and a lot of inventory. ”
Global lithography giant ASML also announced that the company has begun to seek alternative suppliers from Ukraine. In terms of neon supply, it tries to separate it from Ukraine: "Less than 20% of the neon gas used by ASML comes from Ukraine. ”
Within half a year, semiconductors do not lack the tone of Ukraine.
Domestic industry development: 40 years of preparation, 2 years of outbreak
Compared with the long tradition of the Ukrainian gas industry, the history of specialty gases on the mainland is much shorter.
In 1983, the State Council established a leading group for electronic computers and large-scale integrated circuits, and held a national conference on computers and large-scale integrated circuits in May to formulate the LSI development plan. With the gradual formation of ultrapure gas development projects of Beijing Oxygen Plant, Guangming Chemical Research and Design Institute and other institutes, mainland electronic gas has become a key research project in the electronics industry.
At the same time, the mainland is also rapidly carrying out research on gas standardization. In 1987, Chinese researchers translated a full set of "International Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Association (SEMI)" standards, and joined SEMI in 1992 under the name of "SEMI China Standardization Committee". With this set of standards, China's semiconductor industry production can be docked with the international system.
With the preparation of research and development and system, electronic special gas enterprises represented by Guangdong Huate, Zhonghao Guangming, 718 Research Institute of CSSC Group, Dalian Kelide and Jinhong Gas have appeared in China. In the fields of low-end ammonia and laughing gas, it has also achieved stable production. Rare gas products represented by neon gas have also achieved autonomy with the deepening and integration of the mainland steel industry.
Zhang Wei, an industrial gas analyst at Zhuo Chuang Information, pointed out, "In terms of rare gases, domestic head manufacturers include Wuhan Iron and Steel, Shougang, Baosteel, Handan Steel, Quzhou Hang oxygen, Pangang Messer and so on. ”
Ren Lu, general manager of the "Gas Circle", also said, "The amount of neon gas used in the semiconductor field is not too large, and China has sufficient production capacity for a variety of rare gases, including neon gas." ”
However, due to the limited scale of the semiconductor industry in the mainland, a large number of manufacturers who seek stability and speed are more willing to choose foreign manufacturers with stable product quality. Foreign manufacturers represented by American Air Chemical, German Linde, Dayang Daily Acid and Air Liquide finally won more than 85% of the domestic electronic special gas field.
In 2020, this situation was once again broken by the national planning, due to the introduction of the "Several Policies to Promote the High-quality Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry and the Software Industry in the New Era", electronic special gas has become the key target of national industrial investment. High-purity silanes, high-purity ammonia, arsenic have achieved industrial production, and domestic special gases have an industrialized appearance.
In September last year, The Company alone received strategic financing of more than 520 million yuan from the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, the State-Owned Enterprise Mixed Reform Fund, and the National Military-Civilian Integration Industry Investment Fund. Huate Gases and Kemet Gas are also gradually entering the supply chain of the semiconductor industry with the help of "ASML certification".
In 2021, China's rare gas export market will export 65,000 cubic meters of neon gas, of which 60% will be exported to South Korea. Krypton exports 25,000 cubic meters, 37% to Japan, and 900 cubic meters of xenon gas exports, 30% to South Korea.
The domestic electronic special gas that has gone to sea does not need to consider the worries of the broken "neon" caused by Eastern Europe.
The future development of electronic special gas: the battlefield is in the market
The battle of continental electronic special gas, not in the supply, in the market.
Since the mainland's electronic gas industry has long relied on foreign giants, the domestic electronic gas industry strives for customers and faces invisible barriers to standards and technology. In the semiconductor industry, this phenomenon manifests itself in a lengthy review process.
The person in charge of production of an OLED panel manufacturer said that if the gas wants to enter the factory, it needs to first review the factory, then look at the product certification, and mobilize production capacity according to the contract needs of the panel manufacturer. This process generally takes about three years to go down. Suppliers are generally not changed unless there is a significant change in the company.
(The picture shows the OLED production workshop)
The person in charge also said that panel products tend to be multi-specification production, and they hope that gas suppliers can flexibly prepare products. Overall, their needs for others are year-round fine orders that require gas suppliers to be available on call.
Ren Lu also found this during his investigation, "We interviewed a foreign semiconductor factory (8-inch line) in East China last year, and of the 63 electronic special gases used by the company, only 4 were packaged or produced by Chinese domestic enterprises."
In view of this problem, the idea of domestic enterprises is to rely on products and gradually overcome. Huate Gas, which landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2019, became the first gas company in China to break the import restrictions of high-purity hexafluoroethane, high-purity trifluoromethane, high-purity carbon dioxide, high-purity carbon monoxide, high-purity nitric oxide, photolithography gas (Ar/F/Ne mixture, Kr/Ne mixture, Ar/Ne mixture, Kr/F/Ne mixture) and other products, and took the lead in realizing the import substitution of nearly 20 products.
Under the large-scale product coverage, Huate Gas has covered 80% of the domestic integrated circuit manufacturers of more than 8 inches, and won 60% of the domestic photolithography gas share. Although Walter has not yet entered asma's supply chain, the company has entered the supply chain system of semiconductor giants such as Intel, Micron, and Texas Instruments. It directly supplies gas for customers such as China Resources Microelectronics and BOE, and also solves some gas source problems for the domestic semiconductor industry.
As another domestic enterprise striving for "Asmai certification", Kemet Gas put into production yueyang electronic special rare gas project in July 2020, according to Kemet gas, the company has produced qualified hydrogen chloride reference molecule laser mixed gas, fluorine reference molecule laser mixed gas and dynamic laser mixed gas.
In 2021, the company signed an electronic special gas contract amounting to 19.38 million yuan. At present, the company has passed the certification of the laser giant coherent company, and is striving for the certification of Asma, Dayang Daily Acid and Genfu, so as to enter the semiconductor industry.
Founder Bai Jiu, founder of Hongxin Gas, who has obtained more than 100 million financing, has worked in the electronics business of Linde Gas, and has participated in the domestic first-class FAB plants such as SMIC, Lianxin, Yangtze River Storage and other head panel manufacturers' bulk gas station projects. The company's core team comes from the electronic gas department of international gas giants such as Linde, Air Chemical, Air Liquide, etc., and has obtained two gas station projects of Shanghai Xinwei and Zhejiang Chuangxin.
The "gas outage storm" triggered by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has lit up the flares for China's electronic special gas that is still marching in a hurry, but the "domestic substitution" battle of Chinese enterprises is far from over.