After Japan prohibited the staples of Korean major industry, semiconductor, South Korea have been trying to recover from the harm of Japan's trade retaliation and prepare a countermeasure of restricted commodities of hydrogen fluoride, polyimide, and photoresist.

▲ Korea Japan Trade War

On the 9th, five universities, industry and academic cooperation teams agreed to gather their capabilities to operate the special task force. The special task force, which was composed of local governments and five local universities, will support local small and medium-sized companies, which will be affected by Japan's decision to exclude whitelists. In addition, laboratories belonging to five universities in the Gyeongsan region plan to provide technical advice and bottleneck technique to local industries related to semiconductors, displays, automobiles, electronics, mechanical metals and chemicals, especially those need for the development of the top 100 items the government said needed to stabilize supply in the early stages.

▲ Making Semiconductor

Recently, the media reported that Samsung Electronics had decided to replace about 220 Japanese materials and chemicals with products from other countries and has formed a task force to push for them. However, it is reported that a task force team was not made. However, from a long-term perspective, Samsung Electronics is expected to proactively respond to any future risks by re-examining and diversifying its supply chains in major business such as semiconductors and displays, which have relied on Japanese products.

▲ Samsung vice-chairman Jae-yong Lee

Japanese media reports said that the Japanese government has authorized exports of some three key semiconductor materials that have tightened export restriction in South Korea. As of July 7, the Japanese government approved the export of one contract to a South Korean company, and the item is a photoresist applied on a semiconductor board, based on the report.

August 17th, 2019

By Bak Jeong-Heon