POSCO-affiliated industrial gas corporations POSCO Air Solution said on the 17th that it has completed a plant for ultra-high-purity rare gases for the semiconductor and aerospace industries.
POSCO Air Solution held a completion ceremony for the ultra-high-purity rare gas production plant on this day at the Dongho Port site of the Gwangyang Steelworks in South Jeolla Province. The plant has an annual production capacity of 130,000 normal cubic meters (Nm³, a unit of gas volume at 0 degrees Celsius and 1 atmosphere). The company said this is enough to self-supply about 52% of total rare gas demand in Korea's semiconductor market.
POSCO Air Solution refines feed gas extracted from the oxygen plant at POSCO's steelworks into ultra-high-purity rare gases to produce xenon (Xe), krypton (Kr), and neon (Ne). Rare gases are core materials essential across advanced industries, including semiconductor lithography and etching processes, as well as aerospace and medical fields.
POSCO said that with the completion of the ultra-high-purity rare gas plant, it has become possible to localize core materials for semiconductors and aerospace that had previously been entirely imported. POSCO said it plans to expand into various special gas institutional sector linked to its steel business.
Chang In-hwa, chairman of POSCO Group, who attended the completion ceremony, said, "It is very meaningful that, amid growing instability in global materials supply chains, we can directly produce with our own technology and supply in a stable manner the essential materials for high-tech industries that will determine the nation's future, such as semiconductors and aerospace."