To meet growing demand from Korean memory chipmakers, Fujifilm is reportedly expanding operations in South Korea and investing in a new facility to increase CMP slurry production by 30%.
Japanese company Fujifilm Holdings is reportedly set to expand its operations in South Korea to support the growing demand from local memory chipmakers, including SK Hynix and Samsung, as the market for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) continues to soar.
According to a report by Nikkei, the Japanese semiconductor materials supplier plans to build a new facility at its Cheonan plant in South Korea to increase production by 30%.
The new plant will focus on producing CMP slurry, an abrasive powder essential for polishing semiconductor wafers. Fujifilm is expected to invest several billion yen—roughly USD 6.5 million—into the project, which is slated to begin mass production by spring 2027.
This move follows a series of significant investments by Fujifilm in its semiconductor materials business. In September 2024, the company revealed plans to invest 20 billion yen (US$130 million) to expand its semiconductor materials facilities in Japan.
More recently, in December, Fujifilm announced a 2-billion-yen (US$13 million) investment to increase CMP slurry capacity by 30% at its Kumamoto plant in Japan, set to begin operations in January 2025.
Fujifilm’s semiconductor materials division is a key growth area for the company, and it has committed to investing 170 billion yen (US$1.1 billion) in capital and R&D through to the fiscal year ending March 2027, as stated by Tetsuya Iwasaki, General Manager of Fujifilm’s Electronic Materials Division.
