Fujifilm Holdings Corp. is expanding its semiconductor materials production in South Korea, building a new facility to meet growing demand from local memory chip manufacturers, Nikkei reported.
The Japanese company plans to construct an additional building at its Cheonan plant to produce CMP slurry, a crucial material used in semiconductor wafer polishing. The investment, estimated at several billion yen, will boost the plant’s production capacity by 30% when operations begin in spring 2027.
The expansion aims to support South Korean tech giants SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in their development of high-bandwidth memory chips, a key component for artificial intelligence applications. Market researcher Gartner forecasts the HBM sector to reach $21 billion in 2025, marking a 70% increase from 2024.
The South Korean expansion is part of Fujifilm’s broader semiconductor strategy. The company recently announced a 2 billion yen ($13.1 million) investment to increase CMP slurry production at its Kumamoto facility in Japan, positioning itself near Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s new plants.
Fujifilm has designated its semiconductor materials division as a growth driver, committing 170 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for capital expenditure and R&D through March 2027.
