“Chip shortage” has become the “main theme” of today’s global semiconductor market, and downstream customers are suffering because of this, and they need to face the problem of chip shortage and price increases. However, the major chip foundries were soft on receiving orders and became one of the winners.

On October 8, Samsung Electronics announced the company’s third quarter results this year. According to estimates, Samsung is expected to achieve a profit of 15.8 trillion won (about 85.7 billion yuan) in this quarter, and its operating profit has refreshed its best record in three years.

Behind this achievement, more than half are contributed by the semiconductor business. A shortage of semiconductors is a key reason behind the soaring performance of Samsung Electronics.

However, it is worth noting that behind the scene of Samsung Electronics, it is being “stuck” by Japanese companies. Among the 19 materials necessary for chip production, 14 materials are dominated by Japanese companies.

Therefore, Japanese companies can use their dominant position in the semiconductor material industry to easily get stuck in the necks of other countries’ chip industries. South Korea, which is highly dependent on Japanese semiconductor materials, suffered a huge impact on the semiconductor industry after Japan’s export control.

To this end, South Korea has been actively promoting the self-sufficiency of chip materials in the past two years, trying to hold more autonomy in its own hands.

In July this year, the South Korean government announced that its dependence on Japan has been effectively reduced for three key semiconductor materials, EUV photoresist, hydrogen fluoride for circuit manufacturing, and fluorinated polyimide for smartphone OLED panels.

The data released by the Korea International Trade Association also seems to confirm this: In 2018, South Korea imported hydrogen fluoride from Japan amounted to 66.85 million US dollars; in 2020, this figure was only 9.37 million US dollars.

At the same time, the number of EUV photoresists imported by South Korea from Japan has also declined significantly.

It can be seen from the above data that in just two or three years, South Korea has really gotten rid of its dependence on Japan and is not subject to Japan? The fact is not so simple.

Today, more than 80% of the photoresist imported by South Korea still comes from Japanese companies. However, South Korea has changed from importing directly from Japanese companies to importing from JSR’s Belgian subsidiary in Japan. This creates the illusion that South Korea is no longer dependent on Japanese materials.

Semiconductor materials such as EUV photoresist have extremely high technical barriers, which Korean companies cannot overcome overnight. Moreover, the monopoly of Japanese companies on EUV photoresist has reached 100%, and South Korea cannot find any alternative companies.

From this point of view, South Korea is inseparable from Japanese companies for a while. However, today’s global trade frictions and the delicate relationship between Japan and South Korea have made South Korean companies very anxious about this.

Semiconductor materials are monopolized by Japan and become an epee hanging over Korean companies. Even Samsung cannot get rid of this situation. Under the bright appearance of Samsung Electronics, there are many hidden dangers that are hard to ignore.

In order to improve the localization rate of semiconductor production lines, Samsung and other Korean companies have also made continuous efforts in recent years to speed up the independent research and development of the “stuck neck” industry and control the core technology in their own hands.

However, this road is not easy for these enterprises, and the road is long and difficult.