News Article
SDK and AWI Unite For Specialty Material Gas Production
The two firms have agreed to form a partial alliance in the areas of advanced, innovative, and eco-friendly specialty material gases that can be marketed globally in the production of solar cells, semiconductors and LEDs.
The new company, Showa Denko Air Water Co., Ltd., is scheduled to be established next month in Tokyo. The company, to be capitalized at JPY 100 million, will be owned 51% by SDK and 49% by AWI.
Demand for specialty material gases has steadily been growing, centering on Asian markets, for use in the production of solar cells, semiconductors, LCD panels, and LEDs. Due to increasing needs for high-quality, functional, energy-saving and compact electronic devices, manufacturers of specialty material gases are now required to develop new products and make further capital investments.
Under the circumstances, SDK and AWI have agreed to form a partial alliance in the areas of advanced, innovative, and eco-friendly specialty material gases that can be marketed globally.
SDK and AWI will establish an effective production system at the new manufacturing joint venture and launch a wide variety of new material gases, fully utilizing their proprietary technologies. SDK and AWI will take the products from the joint venture and sell them independently through respective sales channels.
As a first step, the JV will install a 40 t/y hydrogen selenide (H2Se) production facility within the premises of SDK's Tokuyama Plant in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. H2Se is used for forming light-absorbing films in CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) compound-semiconductor-based solar cells. The JV will start producing H2Se at the plant in June 2011. CIGS-type solar cells are expected to be widely used for large-scale photovoltaic power generation because their theoretical conversion efficiency is almost equal to that of polycrystalline-silicon-type solar cells.
SDK and AWI will aim to quickly strengthen their joint operations, pursuing the possibility of expanding the JV's product lines and establishing plants at best locations inside and outside Japan.
SDK is a major manufacturer and marketer of chemical products serving a wide range of fields ranging from heavy industry to the electronic and computer industries. SDK makes petrochemicals (ethylene, propylene), aluminum products (ingots, rods), electronic equipment (hard disks for computers) and inorganic materials (ceramics, carbons).
The company has overseas operations and a joint venture with Netherlands-based Montell and Nippon Petrochemicals to make and market polypropylenes. In March 2001, SDK merged with Showa Denko Aluminum Corporation to strengthen the high-value-added fabricated aluminum products operations, and is today developing next-generation optical communications-use wafers.
