Do China’s export curbs on tungsten threaten Japan’s AI chip supply chain?
Tungsten-based materials are widely used in semiconductor manufacturing, and recent supply constraints highlight growing vulnerabilities
The price of tungsten hexafluoride has jumped more than 200 per cent year on year because of supply bottlenecks, coupled with rising chip demand, market data showed. The gas is a critical precursor in the semiconductor industry, where it is used to develop the microscopic connections inside advanced AI chips built on 3- to 7-nanometre processing nodes.
The latest available data on Tuesday showed the price of five-nines tungsten hexafluoride – meaning 99.999 per cent purity – stood at more than 1,700 yuan (US$251) per kg, triple that of a year earlier, according to ibuychem, a Guangzhou-based industry portal.
Showa Denko Kanto and Central Glass – two major Japanese producers of specialty gases used in semiconductor manufacturing – were planning to suspend production in July as inventories dwindled, according to an earlier report by The Elec, an electronics industry media outlet in South Korea. The firms had notified major chip manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics and DB HiTek, of potential disruptions, according to the report.
Tungsten powder – the raw material used to produce tungsten hexafluoride – accounted for more than 60 per cent of the gas’s production costs, the note’s authors said.