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| President Moon Jae-in and dozens of business leaders hold a meeting at Cheong Wa Dae to discuss how to deal with Japan's export restrictions, Thursday. / Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
Semiconductor companies here are skeptical about Russia's offer to supply hydrogen fluoride, also known as etching gas, in place of Japanese firms, industry officials said Sunday, citing that the Russian material has not been adequately tested.
Moscow has recently suggested exporting etching gas to Korean companies, government officials said, adding that they were reviewing whether to accept the proposal.
The proposal was made at a time when Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have faced growing uncertainty following Japan's decision, announced on July 1, to strengthen restrictions on the export of three items ― fluorinated polyimide, photoresist and etching gas ― to Korea amid a worsening diplomatic row between the two nations.
Etching gas is a crucial material for chip production as it is used in etching semiconductor wafers.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have relied heavily on two Japanese companies ― Stella Chemifa and Morita Chemical ― for importing etching gas as the Japanese firms dominate the global market.
If it is possible for Korean chipmakers to replace Japanese material with Russian products in their chip production, they would be able to iron out the uncertainty to some extent. But officials at semiconductor companies said there is a lot to check to see if the Russian material can be used in their semiconductor processes.
"We have no information about the quality of Russian etching gas, thus its quality has not been proved," a semiconductor company official said, asking not to be named. "If Russian material had been good enough, we would have already imported and used it."
Etching gas is used in about 50 of 700 semiconductor processes.
Existing semiconductor processing has been optimized for the use of Japanese material, thus chipmakers need to design their processes again from the very beginning when changing material.
"It will take months to verify the quality of material offered by new suppliers and actually use it in chip production," another official said.
Russia's proposal comes at a time when the government has stressed the importance of diversifying suppliers to overcome the crisis likely to result from Japan's export regulations. The issue, which is connected to diplomatic matters, is likely to continue.
After a meeting between President Moon Jae-in and dozens of local business leaders at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday, presidential spokeswoman Ko Min-jung said, "Participants shared the need to expand cooperation with countries that have strength in the chemical sector, such as Russia and Germany. It is surely necessary to reduce dependence on imports from a certain country."
