Four Japanese companies have announced restricting supply to China, halting new orders for Chinese customers on photoresist and declaring this as a coordinated action!

On June 22, multiple industry media outlets reported a major development. On the same day, four Japanese photoresist manufacturers—Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, JSR, Shin-Etsu Chemical, and Fujifilm Electronic Materials—issued "supply cutoff warnings" to their Chinese clients.

No new orders will be accepted for ArF and EUV photoresists. For KrF photoresist, new orders have been drastically reduced. Even existing contracts are not faring better—delivery lead times have stretched from 1–2 months to 6–8 months.

Collectively, these four Japanese firms hold 72% of the global photoresist market share. EUV photoresist is exclusively supplied for cutting-edge chips at 7nm and below, with 100% of the global market controlled by these four companies. ArF photoresist covers mainstream advanced processes from 90nm down to 14nm, where Japanese manufacturers dominate 87% of the market. This move appears to be a calculated bet that China’s AI chips and memory chips will remain heavily dependent on them.

In the first quarter of 2025, China imported approximately 2,200 tons of photoresist from Japan. By the first quarter of 2026, this had plummeted to just 111.3 tons—a staggering 95% decline. Monthly breakdown: 69.2 tons in January, zero in February, 42.1 tons in March. Combined imports for April and May totaled only between 40 and 50 tons. For high-end ArF and EUV photoresists, customs declarations remained zero for the first five months of 2026—not a reduction, but a complete elimination.

This exact scenario previously played out against South Korea.

In July 2019, Japan imposed export controls on three critical materials—photoresist, fluorinated polyimide, and high-purity hydrofluoric acid—targeting South Korea. At the time, 94% of South Korea’s photoresist imports came from Japan. Samsung’s inventory lasted only weeks, nearly leading to production shutdowns. It wasn’t until diplomatic relations eased between Japan and South Korea in 2023 that Japan lifted the restrictions.

Now, the same situation is unfolding in China—but with a fundamental difference: South Korea had no prior preparation, while China has been preparing for six years.

Domestic efforts to replace imported photoresist have already been underway. KrF photoresist is leading in domestic localization: Kehua Microelectronics now holds over 40% market share in China, with multiple thousand-ton-scale production lines entering stable supply. For ArF photoresist, Nankai Optoelectronics has achieved mass production of 28nm-grade products. D&L Group's 300-ton high-end photoresist production line is scheduled to officially commence operations in March 2026. Multiple companies’ products are gradually entering validation stages at top-tier semiconductor wafer fabs. While the domestic production rate for EUV photoresist remains near zero, China has already initiated the project for setting up testing standards for EUV photoresist.

The Third Phase of the Big Fund has poured over 50 billion yuan into semiconductor materials. National standards for EUV photoresist are currently under development. South Korea was forced to start from scratch; China is now sprinting forward with momentum. That’s the key difference.

Imports dropped from 2,200 tons to just 50 tons. Who will fill this massive 2,000+ ton gap? Only domestic photoresist manufacturers can do it. Going from 1% market share to 20% represents tens of times more growth potential. Once a photoresist product passes customer validation, switching becomes highly unlikely. Are these Japanese companies acting maliciously—or simply foolish?

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1868843668628556/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.