JK Materials Obtains Hazardous Chemical Business Permit... "Establishing Sejong Plant as a Semiconductor Materials Production Base"

JK Materials has secured the regulatory foundation for the full-scale mass production of core semiconductor materials at its Sejong plant, scheduled to begin in July.

On May 11, JK Materials announced that it had received a hazardous chemical business permit under the Chemicals Control Act from the Geumgang Basin Environmental Office. A hazardous chemical business permit is a mandatory requirement for businesses that manufacture, sell, store, transport, or use hazardous chemicals, as stipulated by law. This is a critical regulatory approval that comprehensively verifies a facility’s standards, technical personnel, and safety management systems, rather than being a simple paperwork submission.

JK Materials is currently preparing for the mass production of semiconductor photolithography process materials and packaging materials for post-processing at the Sejong plant, located within the Jeonui Industrial Complex in Sejong City. With the acquisition of this permit, the Sejong plant has officially been recognized for its compliance as a manufacturing and usage facility under the Chemicals Control Act, securing a core regulatory foundation for semiconductor material mass production. Hanwool Materials Science and Hanwool Semiconductor have jointly invested over 80 billion won in this plant.

Notably, this regulatory process was completed without any additional supplementation or re-examination. While it generally takes about four to five months to complete related regulatory approvals after construction, JK Materials finished the process more than a month faster than average through thorough pre-approval preparation.

JK Materials has built the Sejong plant as a dedicated semiconductor material manufacturing facility from the design and planning stages. The company explained that proactively incorporating standards for handling hazardous chemicals, managing dangerous materials, and environmental and safety criteria, not just for production facilities, had a positive impact during government inspections and on-site audits.

The remaining step is the Process Safety Management (PSM) review by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which examines process-related risks and safety management systems. JK Materials plans to proceed with this step sequentially to accelerate preparations for mass production in July.

Kim Kyungjun, Chairman of the Board of Directors at JK Materials, said, "The time, effort, and investment we have devoted over the past five years have borne fruit, as we have officially received recognition for our manufacturing facility compliance from the national authorities. We will do our utmost to ensure the Sejong plant becomes a leading production base, contributing to the localization of semiconductor materials in Korea."