"First launch, thanks for tasting. Before reading, we sincerely invite you to click "Follow" in the upper right corner, so that you can continue to provide you with high-quality content, and it is also convenient for you to participate in discussions and exchanges, and your support is the source of power for our creation!
** Financial gossip
Author of Financial Gossip
Yes, to be exactA series of gases such as neon, helium, and electronic special gases in industrial gases.
Probably more than anythingLighter gaskets, ballpoint pen refills, remote dog breedingThis is the "industrial pearl" that needs to be picked up urgently.
Recently, China Coal Engineering Group announced that the world's first set of 3The 60,000 nm3 d helium-containing coalbed methane extraction high-purity helium extraction device was successfully started, and a major breakthrough was made in China's high-purity helium.
This is good newsHowever, it is still far from enough for China's "electronic special gas" to get rid of the "stuck neck" problem.
Up toA glass of beer, down toMRI, flying into the sea, all of which require the use of industrial gases.
For a chip alone, hundreds of gases are needed in the production process, which are collectively referred to as electronic special gases, referred to as "electronic special gases".
We're inLow-endIt can be said that it is on the industrial gasBig and strong, for example, injecting carbon dioxide into Coca-Cola, which is the work of Kemet in Hunan.
But such as helium is widely usedThe dependence of gases for chips, rockets, airplanes, superconductors, etc., on foreign countries exceeds 95%.
Electronic specialty gases are called "the blood of chip manufacturing", and rare earths are called "vitamins of manufacturing"., the positioning of these two, both may not be in high demand, but can not be without.
But if we talk about rare earths, our country has completely turned over to be the master, and even foreigners have to look at our faces and actThen there is still a long way to go in terms of electronic special gases.
It's like the analogy: "Whose chef has to start by growing vegetables?" ”
We have to overcome the problem of electronic special gas to build a chip, but we can connectThe king of lithography machines, such as ASML, also uses imported electronic special gases.
It used to be imported from Germany, the United States, and Japan, and now it also adds ** merchants from China.
Under the blockade of China's chip industry by the outside world, we have to "start growing vegetables from the beginning of Pangu".
In the process of producing chips, it is usedHundreds of electronic specialties
Although even on the globe,The market size of electronic special gas is not large, only about 5 billion US dollars, but a small "breath" is very simple to get stuck in our necks.
The smaller the nano manufacturing process of the manufactured chip, the more special it is for electronicsPurity requirementsthe higher.
Manufacturing5-7 nanometer chips, the required purity can be up to13n, which is 9999999999999%，There are 13 "9s" in the percentage
In order to meet the requirements of purity, evenThe cylinders used to hold the gas have to be disposed of with imported equipment.
There have been Chinese industrial gas companies that have tried to find Chinese steel mills to produce cylinders to replace imports.
When the order was placed, the steel mill swore that it could do it, but after the gas was chargedIt was found that because the steel mill could not "clean" the surface, the purity of the final gas was unqualified.
Eventually, the gas companies of our country**ImportsCylinder handling equipment.
But that was a few years ago, and I don't know if we have the technology now.
If anything, it's not "cooking from the planting", but "cooking from the seedlings".
On the one hand, we arePurification technology is insufficientand, on the other hand, there are gasesThe domestic reserves are small, the grade is low, the purification is more difficult, and the dependence on imports is more.
In the semiconductor manufacturing process, electronic specialty gases are the second largest material, accounting for up to 14%.
However, 85% of these gases come from the world's four giants: Germany's Linde Group, France's Air Liquide, Japan's Acid Holdings, and the United States' Air Chemical.Because several oligopolies have a monopoly on technology, gross margins tend to be high, with some companies as high as about 60%. Originally, we didn't have this "stuck neck" trouble, after all, we used to "lack cores and fewer screens", and of course we don't need to think about these if we can't build it.
But now, China's semiconductor industry has developed greatly"Lack of cores and fewer screens".The problem has been gradually solvedThe demand for electronic specialties is also steadily increasing year by year.
In the past, in order to compete with South Korea in the semiconductor industry, Japan banned the export of electronic specialty gases to South KoreaForcedSouth Korea independently developed electronic special gas extraction technology.
Now, it is our turn to target Japan.
On July 23, 2023, after participating in the G7, the designated,Japan's export ban on China's semiconductor industry was officially implemented, including electronic special gases, such as hydrogen fluoride, nitrogen, argon, etc10 high-purity gases
On the other hand, even if our country's technology breaks through, we still have to waitTwo to three years of customer audits
After all, it is a high-precision technology, even if there are manufacturers who produce these electronic specialties, they must be verified before they can enter the eyes of sellers.
In general,The verification process alone takes 2-3 years.
But the benefits are also obviousOnce verified, the customer will basically not run unless it goes out of business.
The same may be true of the recently built high-purity helium extraction unit, which has been built, but it will take a few more years for it to be used in industry.
Nowadays,Some enterprises in China have the ability to produce electronic special gasesand has passed customer verification.
Such as Huate Gas, developed byLithography gasJustVerified by ASMLto become certifiedThe only four in the worldOne of the gas companies, it is now able to produce more than 50 types of specialty gases.
This is tooLet China's electronic special gas from zero to have a pioneer
According to Techect, it is expected that in 2023, our country'sThe size of the electronic specialty gas marketIt can be reached24.9 billion yuan
After all, in recent years, semiconductors, photovoltaics, medical equipment and other projects are making breakthroughs, and demand is also growing.
High-purity neon gas is one of the "lithographic gases", and 70% of the world's neon gas was once supplied by Ukraine.
Because of the reason of "everyone who understands", the supply of neon gas in Ukraine was cut off, and the ** soared 20 times, and it reached it for a while1.50,000 yuan per cubic meterTarget**.
At the beginning of 2023, Russia, another "neon-producing power", also announcedRestriction of neon gas exports, neon gas ** skyrocketed again.
If you really can't buy neon at all, the entire semiconductor industry will be paralyzed.
To this end, the domestic neon gas merchants began to accelerate their growth.
If you want to extract neon gas autonomously, you must have itAir separation equipment
That is, willA specific gas is separated from the air, andAchieve a certain level of purityequipment.
For example, the oxygen generator is a typical air separation equipment, and it is also one of the original air separation equipment.
Some coal factories need itOxygen production in quantities of up to 1 million cubic meters per hour, that is, 5 million cubic meters of air are extracted per hour.
Shenhua Ning coal was originally going to be importedHowever, the ** of foreign companies is too high, and a device that produces 100,000 cubic meters of oxygen per hour is as high as 500 million, the original 10 units plus the spare 2 units, the cost is 6 billion.
In order to save costs, among them6 sets of domestic equipment manufacturers Hangyang Co., Ltd. have been introduced to compete with foreign companies.
The final result is that domestic enterprises have low capital consumption, low energy consumption, and better oxygen production quality, and since then, large-scale air separation equipment has been domestically produced.
With large-scale air separation equipment and independent production of neon in China, this is on the agenda.
Neon gas in the aircontentOnly
Compared with the content of oxygen in the air of up to 20%, neon gas is too different, and the technical requirements of oxygen generators and neon extraction equipment are also very different.
But because of the previous experience, until now,The neon gas manufactured in China accounts for as much as 40% of the global market.
It is the advancement of domestic equipment, the domestic neon **,There is no unlimited price increase under the influence of various external factors, becoming a stumbling block to the development of the semiconductor industry.
When it comes to helium, most people think of balloons tied together sold on the street.
But because the cost of helium is dozens of times higher than that of hydrogen, many black-hearted dealers are actually selling hydrogen balloons.
Helium has many more uses, such as:Pressure delivery agents for liquid fuel for rockets, reactor coolers, filling light bulbs, manufacturing superconducting equipmentWait, that's probably why it's more expensive.
And it tooElectronic special gasesone.
Helium is extremely abundant in the universeThere are very few in the Earth's atmosphere, accounting for only 5 parts per million2。
Therefore, before human technology can reach the point of rushing out of the earth to collect helium in large quantities, this is all thisNon-renewable resources
BecauseIt is simply too difficult to extract helium from the airand now more soHelium is extracted from natural gas.
And China's natural gas is a kind of low helium contentThat's just 2% of the world, and the amount of helium reserves in the United States, at one timeUp to 40%.
Of course, according to the current relationship, the Americans are not willing to sell us helium, and we are nowThe largest importer of helium is from Qatar, but Qatari'sequipmentAlsoFrom the United StatesIt's hard not to be avoided"Long-arm jurisdiction".impact.
Not only are the Americans reluctant to sell it to us, but even they themselves have almost no helium to use.
After several years of selling helium cheaply "in the ** style" due to the US Helium privatization bill, now in factThere is also a shortage of heliumproblems.
In recent years, because of technological breakthroughs, China's heliumExternal dependence has dropped from 95 per cent to 92 per cent.
But after allTotalIt's here, no matter how much you grow, there is a ceiling.
This time, as mentioned earlierThe coalbed methane extraction high-purity helium unit was startedIt is believed that the realization of this new device can achieve a new breakthrough for the domestic production of helium.
From July 2023, Japan will restrict exports to our countryHydrogen fluoride
This is the old Japanese methodAlthough Japan's semiconductors are no longer good, the key hydrogen fluoride technology for semiconductors is still monopolized by Japanese companies.
Back in 2019, Japan imposed export controls on South Korea, as a resultStimulated the R&D personnel in South Korea to work hard, and by 2019, hydrogen fluoride was localized.
In China, there are also companies that can produce high-purity hydrogen fluoride, such as Yonghe shares, but it is also the same as South KoreaIt can be produced, but it is still far from the level of Japan
According to the planning of the "Guiding Catalogue for the First Batch of Application Demonstration of Key New Materials", ultra-high purity cyanide, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, etc. have been listed as key new materials.
At present, there are also a number of them in ChinaA small giant of "specialized, special and new" industrial gasesEnterprise.
Such as Hangyang shares, Qiaoyuan shares, Huate gas, Kaimei special gas, etc.
These companies have already entered the international industrial gas marketSecond echelon
It is believed that with the breakthrough of China's industrial gas technology, more enterprises will emerge in the future.
This future may still be far away, but we can't let him "stuck" in the "neck" of semiconductors.
What do you think of the current situation of electronic special gases in my country? Feel free to leave your comments and opinions in the comment area.