April 9, 2024 | By Mary Bailey

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. (Tokyo) has decided to build a new plant in Isesaki City in Gunma Prefecture, Japan to expand its semiconductor lithography materials business. The new plant will become Shin-Etsu’s fourth production base for this business.

Shin-Etsu has acquired an about 150,000 m² business site in the city where it will build a new manufacturing and research-and-development base for semiconductor lithography materials. After considering several potential sites for the new plant, Shin-Etsu Chemical selected this site in close cooperation with both Gunma Prefecture and Isesaki City. The company plans to invest in the new plant in phases, with the first phase of investment to be completed by 2026. The investment, including the acquisition of the land, is expected to amount to about ¥83 billion (around $547 million) at the completion of the first phase of construction, and it will be funded entirely by using the company’s own funds.

Shin-Etsu Chemical launched the photoresists business in 1997 and started production of the then-most cutting-edge KrF photoresists at the Naoetsu Plant in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Since then, the company has successfully developed and commercialized a succession of semiconductor lithography materials such as photomask blanks, ArF photoresists, multilayer materials, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) resists and others. Shin-Etsu established the second production base in Fukui Prefecture in 2016 and the third production base in Yunlin County in the western part of Taiwan in 2019 for the semiconductor lithography materials business.