[Click eStock] "SK Materials, Direct Beneficiary of Material Localization"

Localization of Hydrogen Fluoride and Photoresist... Expecting Additional Sales of 100 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] SK Materials is expected to see significant sales growth as it begins mass production of key domestically produced materials such as hydrogen fluoride and photoresist.

On the 18th, Samsung Securities issued a 'Buy' rating and a target price of 200,000 KRW for SK Materials. The previous day's closing price was 179,200 KRW. This is based on the analysis that domestic semiconductor manufacturers are actively localizing their material supply sources and SK Materials can directly benefit from this trend. Researcher Jongwook Lee of Samsung Securities explained, "SK Materials is expected to see sales growth centered on relatively large and important markets such as hydrogen fluoride and photoresist," adding, "However, the stock price has not yet fully reflected this localization premium."

In fact, SK Materials has succeeded in mass-producing ultra-high purity (99.999% purity) hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas. The company announced yesterday that it has started mass production of hydrogen fluoride gas at its plant in Yeongju, Gyeongbuk Province. Hydrogen fluoride gas is a cleaning gas used in semiconductor manufacturing and was one of the three major items subject to Japan's export restrictions in July last year. Until now, domestic semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have imported almost all ultra-high purity hydrogen fluoride gas from overseas, mainly Japan. SK Materials plans to raise the localization rate of hydrogen fluoride gas to 70% by 2023 through this mass production.

Another domestically produced material expected to benefit is photoresist (PR), which SK Materials also plans to mass-produce. Since 2022, SK Materials has been planning mass production of 'ArF immersion photoresist.' The goal is to obtain product approval within this year and mass-produce 50,000 gallons starting in 2022. The acquisition of the PR business division from Kumho Petrochemical for 40 billion KRW in February is in line with this strategy. Last year, the domestic market size for semiconductor photoresist was about 450 billion KRW, of which approximately 50 billion KRW was produced domestically. Researcher Lee forecasted, "Sales of about 20 billion KRW are expected this year, mainly from fluorokrypton PR," and added, "If product approval and expansion proceed as planned, sales could increase to 100 billion KRW by 2023."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.