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SK Materials to Expand Materials Portfolio into TADF Emitters
In 2021, SK Materials’ product portfolio will go beyond semicon materials to include OLED materials. A likely improvement in memory supply-demand conditions from early 2021 and SK Hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s Dalian fab are also positive factors for SK Materials. Transformation from semicon materials player to comprehensive materials player. Recently, the company established a JV with Japanese OLED materials maker JNC. JNC holds the patent for a technology called TADF (thermally activated delayed fluorescence) DABNA, which is used to produce blue materials, the most difficult OLED RGB elements to manufacture. The combination of JNC’s technology and SK Materials’ financial power is expected to generate synergies going forward.
The expansion of existing JV businesses, such as SK Trichem and SK Airgas, should also begin in earnest in 2021. Sales at SK Airgas are likely to grow on the start of operations at SK Hynix’s new M16 fab. Meanwhile, SK Trichem is expected to benefit from a shift to Hf materials for insulating film. Improvements in memory supply/demand from early 2021 should also help the firm’s earnings to grow. Memory demand has been improving recently. PC sales hit a 10-year high this year on non-face-to-face demand. Smartphone sales have also improved somewhat on competition between Samsung Electronics (SEC), Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo to secure Huawei’s market share, following the imposition of US sanctions against the firm. We note that the scale of memory product orders placed recently exceeds the size of order reduction at Huawei. SK Hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s NAND business should benefit SK Materials over the long term. SK Hynix’s NAND shipments are expected to increase 69% y-y in 2022 on the addition of Intel’s 85K wpm fab. SK Materials also plans to develop a high-selectivity phosphoric acid for 3D NAND production and supply it to SK Hynix.
In 2021, SK Materials’ product portfolio will go beyond semicon materials to include OLED materials. A likely improvement in memory supply-demand conditions from early 2021 and SK Hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s Dalian fab are also positive factors for SK Materials. Transformation from semicon materials player to comprehensive materials player. Recently, the company established a JV with Japanese OLED materials maker JNC. JNC holds the patent for a technology called TADF (thermally activated delayed fluorescence) DABNA, which is used to produce blue materials, the most difficult OLED RGB elements to manufacture. The combination of JNC’s technology and SK Materials’ financial power is expected to generate synergies going forward.
The expansion of existing JV businesses, such as SK Trichem and SK Airgas, should also begin in earnest in 2021. Sales at SK Airgas are likely to grow on the start of operations at SK Hynix’s new M16 fab. Meanwhile, SK Trichem is expected to benefit from a shift to Hf materials for insulating film. Improvements in memory supply/demand from early 2021 should also help the firm’s earnings to grow. Memory demand has been improving recently. PC sales hit a 10-year high this year on non-face-to-face demand. Smartphone sales have also improved somewhat on competition between Samsung Electronics (SEC), Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo to secure Huawei’s market share, following the imposition of US sanctions against the firm. We note that the scale of memory product orders placed recently exceeds the size of order reduction at Huawei. SK Hynix’s acquisition of Intel’s NAND business should benefit SK Materials over the long term. SK Hynix’s NAND shipments are expected to increase 69% y-y in 2022 on the addition of Intel’s 85K wpm fab. SK Materials also plans to develop a high-selectivity phosphoric acid for 3D NAND production and supply it to SK Hynix.
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