Posco opens rare gas plant for South Korean semiconductor market - gasworld

POSCO Air Solution, the industrial gas arm of POSCO Group, has completed construction of a high-purity rare gas facility at its Gwangyang Works in South Korea, capable of producing 130,000 Nm³ per yea... Read original →

POSCO’s rare gas localization isn’t mere capacity build-out—it’s a strategic decoupling from geopolitical volatility in Korea’s semiconductor supply chain. Technically, stable high-purity xenon, krypton, and neon directly enhance EUV/ArF lithography yield and etching consistency, enabling Samsung and SK Hynix to push 3D NAND layer counts beyond current limits. Regulatory-wise, post-Ukraine export controls have turned import reliance into a cost-risk premium; domestic production sidesteps U.S. CHIPS Act material-tracing scrutiny. Competitively, Showa Denko and Linde may accelerate Southeast Asian investments to counter Korea’s self-reliance push, while Taiwan, China fabs face rising input-cost disadvantages. Within 18 months, Seoul will likely validate a closed-loop ‘materials-equipment-fab’ ecosystem—if yield metrics hold, global memory manufacturing gravity shifts further toward Korea, potentially relocating rare gas pricing power from Eastern Europe to East Asia.