"High-purity hydrofluoric acid is our trump card. It was with this that we brought down Moon Jae-in, and now it's time to use it against China!" — This is the rant of some Japanese netizens online. Sounds intimidating, but is it really true?
First, let's talk about the 2019 Japan-South Korea dispute. At that time, Japan did impose export controls on South Korea. At that time, about 70% of high-purity hydrofluoric acid worldwide was supplied by Japanese companies, and South Korean giants like Samsung and SK Hynix were heavily dependent on Japanese imports. When Japan tightened its export licenses, South Korea immediately felt the pressure, and Moon Jae-in had to urgently push for domestic production, using national resources to support the local supply chain. It can be said that this incident did indeed hit South Korea hard.
But the question is, is China the same as South Korea?
Taking high-purity hydrofluoric acid as an example. Before 2019, China's high-end products were indeed reliant on imports, but by 2023, at least five Chinese companies had achieved mass production of electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid, with a purity reaching G5 level (metal impurity content below 10ppt), meeting the requirements of 14nm and even more advanced manufacturing processes. For example, companies like Dofu Duo, Jianghua Wei, and Juhua Co., not only supply local wafer foundries such as SMIC and Yangtze Memory, but have also started exporting to Southeast Asia.
Looking upstream, Japan's real "Achilles' heel" is actually in the raw material — fluorite (fluorspar). The starting point of high-purity hydrofluoric acid is fluorite with over 97% calcium fluoride. According to Japan's Ministry of Finance import data from 2014 to 2022, 79% of Japan's acid-grade fluorite came from China, with Vietnam being the second-largest source, accounting for 20%. In other words, Japanese companies can produce high-purity hydrofluoric acid, but their raw materials are almost entirely supplied by China.
This has created a ironic situation: Japanese netizens imagine using hydrofluoric acid to attack China, but their own hydrofluoric acid production lines are built on the basis of Chinese raw materials. If China retaliates and restricts fluorite exports, Japan's semiconductor material supply chain may break first. In fact, some Japanese chemical industry executives have privately expressed concerns: "If China uses fluorite as a bargaining chip, our semiconductor manufacturing will also be affected."
China is not only the largest producer of fluorite (accounting for over 60% of global output), but also the only country in the world with a complete fluorine chemical industry chain — from fluorite mining, hydrofluoric acid synthesis, to high-end derivatives such as hexafluorophosphate lithium (core component of lithium battery electrolyte) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), all of which are fully self-controlled. In contrast, although Japan has technical advantages in some high-end materials, its industrial chain is fragile and highly dependent on single import sources.
In one sentence: You Japan want to use hydrofluoric acid as a sword, but the hilt is in China's hands.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1849726212767747/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.