Mars Finance News, June 28 – Citing industry sources, Critini Research analyst Jukan reported that procurement of high-purity carbon dioxide used in advanced semiconductor processes has flashed warning signals. The root cause is not on the demand side, but a sharp decline in upstream CO2 production, as lower operating rates at oil refineries and petrochemical plants have significantly reduced CO2 output as a byproduct. Semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers typically hold around two weeks of inventory each, totaling about one month of supply, but the industry widely believes that current inventory has fallen below this red line. Industry data shows that Samsung Electronics consumes approximately 1,800 to 2,000 tons of high-purity CO2 per month, while SK Hynix uses about 600 to 700 tons per month. Although production at both companies has not yet been disrupted, their inventory buffers are continuously shrinking, and procurement efforts have intensified significantly. Even with price increases, it is difficult to lock in additional supply in the short term because upstream raw material shortages pose a physical hard constraint. Liquid CO2 prices have risen about 20% since the beginning of the year, and the industry expects supply tightness to persist until the end of the year. Major high-purity CO2 suppliers in South Korea include Taekyung Chemical, Sundo Chemical, Dongkwang Chemical, and SK Air Plus, with Taekyung Chemical recognized as the industry leader. High-purity CO2 is heavily used in the supercritical cleaning process for advanced manufacturing — in a supercritical state, CO2 possesses both liquid-like solvency and gas-like permeability, allowing it to penetrate extremely fine pattern gaps to remove residues and contaminants, which is critical for advanced chips with narrow pattern spacing and large step height differences. CO2 raw material comes from byproducts of oil refining, petrochemical, and hydrogen production processes. Instability in crude oil supply and demand caused by the U.S.-Iran conflict and Middle East tensions has led to lower operating rates at domestic petrochemical plants, which has directly impacted semiconductor materials. As a materials expert put it: "After helium, anhydrous hydrogen fluoride, and PGMEA, CO2 has also run into problems. The risk from Middle East crude oil is repeatedly spilling over into the semiconductor materials sector, meaning the materials supply chain is deeply intertwined with refinery and petrochemical byproducts."

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Critini analyst: High-purity CO2 for semiconductors is running low, Samsung and SK Hynix scramble to secure supplies, with remaining stock falling below the one-month safety line.

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