WET CHEMICALS FOR ELECTRONICS AND SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS MARKET ANALYSIS

Fluctuations in the prices of raw materials such as chemicals and gases used in the production of wet chemicals for electronics and semiconductors applications poses a significant challenge for the sustainable growth of this market globally. Manufacturers of wet chemicals have to consistently deal with the volatility in input costs due to various macroeconomic and geopolitical factors beyond their control. This makes it extremely difficult for them to maintain stable product prices offered to customers. Frequent rises in raw material costs squeeze the margins of wet chemical producers. In some cases, the inflated expenses cannot be fully passed on to buyers via price hikes due to competitive pressures. This exerts downward pressure on the profits of manufacturers.  The uncertainty and unpredictability caused by fluctuations in raw material pricing make long term strategic planning a complex task for market players. It discourages investments aimed at enhancing capacities and capabilities. This is not conducive to ensuring adequate, timely supply of wet chemicals to meet the ever-growing demand from the electronics and semiconductor manufacturing sectors, especially amid current global chip shortage issues. According to United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the outbreak of COVID-19 exacerbated pre-existing downward pressures on global value chains for electronics and disrupted supplies of critical inputs. This increased the vulnerabilities in semiconductor manufacturing due to dependence on imports for raw materials.

Opportunity: Rising demand for consumer electronics & adoption of new technologies

The global consumer electronics market has been witnessing robust growth in recent years driven by rising disposable incomes, urbanization and changing lifestyles across major countries. Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, 5G, Internet of Things and augmented/virtual reality are being rapidly adopted in consumer devices. This widespread proliferation and the ongoing innovation cycle have increased the demand for more powerful and sophisticated electronics. Semiconductor chips and components are the building blocks of all modern devices and play a critical role in enabling new features. Their manufacturing requires specialized chemicals and processes.  As the complexity and performance of chips increase with each new generation to support emerging technologies, semiconductor foundries and electronics manufacturers are constantly upgrading their facilities and production lines. This has significantly boosted the need for high-purity wet chemicals that can precisely etch, clean and deposit thin film layers on silicon wafers or printed circuit boards during manufacturing. For example, hydrofluoric acid and ammonium hydroxide are crucial for delicate etching steps to carve out circuit patterns. Organic solvents like acetone and isopropyl alcohol are heavily used for cleaning. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes rely on precursor gases and deposition enhancers to build up transistor layers atom by atom.