A new joint venture between Belgian chemicals company Solvay and Taiwanese fibres developer Shinkong is set to serve Taiwan's semiconductor demand spike, building on the latter’s established presence in East Asian markets.
Semiconductor. Credit: Connect world / Shutterstock
Demand for semiconductors has outpaced the current supply owing to the ongoing semiconductor shortage. Credit: Connect world / Shutterstock
The new joint venture, dubbed Shinsol Advanced Chemicals, is set to develop, produce and market electronics-grade hydrogen peroxide.
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Operations should commence at some point during the first quarter of 2023 and its headquarters will be located close to the Southern Taiwan Science Park near Tainan.
This comes as many electronics developers and automakers look to shift away from semiconductors produced in the far east.
The global rise in demand for electronics and electric vehicles continues to drive demand for semiconductors. Many suppliers are unable to keep up with demand, which has caused pitfalls in the manufacturing of electronics and for the automotive sector.
The company aims to serve the booming Taiwan semiconductor industry with the creation of a new chemical agent for the production of integrated electronic circuits and will have an initial production capacity of 30,000 tonnes per annum - subject to increases at a later date.
“We are delighted to embark on this new joint operation between Shinkong and Solvay,” said Eric Wu, chairman of Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corporation. “This joint venture will supply electronic grade hydrogen peroxide with the highest international quality standards while strictly following the principles of sustainability and minimising environmental impact.”
“The rapid growth in demand in the Taiwan semiconductor industry is an opportunity to bring our world-leading technology for the best quality of electronic grade hydrogen peroxide, building on the experience of multiple Solvay plants already operating in Asia, Europe and the US,” said Rodrigo Elizondo, president of Solvay Technology Solutions.
Chemical agents play a large role in semiconductor manufacturing across all aspects of production, but many have associated health risks.
For example, exposure to potentially carcinogenic chemicals has become something of a hot topic as chip manufacturing becomes more advanced.
Both lithium and cobalt, which are the primary metals used in the production of semiconductors, have various environmental and ethical issues associated with them, from logistics and transport issues, to child labour.
Read more:Trafigura to set up "controlled mining zones" in DRC, in cobalt deal
Tackling the issue of carbon emissions along the lithium supply chain will also be essential in securing the energy transition.
Current estimates suggest the semiconductor could last well into 2023, with many governments and companies looking to increase domestic production to make supply chains more robust in the face of future crises and to minimise losses attributed to the shortage.
Projects such as the 250GW German Tesla gigafactory and the $17 billion chip plant project under consideration by Samsung have all arisen to tackle the semiconductor shortage.
Tech giants such as Intel have also offered to provide funding to governments, such as the European Commission, to help kickstart domestic semiconductor projects as western automakers and electronics developers look to become less dependent on primarily East Asian suppliers such as those in Taiwan.
Solvay and Shinkong aim to close the transaction in the second half of 2021, pending regulatory approvals in Taiwan and other countries.
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