On the afternoon of March 11, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other ministries and commissions held a coordination working meeting on the industrial gas "bottleneck" problem, systematically combing the status quo of industrial gas in China, and coordinating to promote the solution of the "jam neck" problem that restricts the development of the industry.

Industrial gases, known as the blood of industry, are almost involved in every aspect of human life. The domestic market space is about 150 billion yuan, with an annual compound growth rate of 8%-9%. And China's industrial gas field is mainly controlled by foreign enterprises. In 2017, the share of global industrial gas leaders such as Air Chemical, Air Liquide Group, Taiyo Nippon Sanso and Linde Group in the domestic market was as high as 88%. Domestic substitution is urgent.

HSCC actively gives full play to the strength of private enterprises, according to the general secretary of the "big cycle, double cycle" new development pattern requirements, to solve the "bottleneck" project, and fill the industry gap. In 2019, the Group acquired Air Liquide (Fuzhou) Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of France's Air Liquide Group, and re-named it to Fujian Heseng Gas Co., Ltd (HGC). HGC adopts the world's advanced patented technology and production process to provide stable and high-quality industrial gas raw materials such as hydrogen, synthetic ammonia and nitrogen to the market. Since 2020, HSCC took advantage of the enterprise, with" double main business "model, carried out industry chain vertical integration and horizontal development across the region, actively push forward to fill the domestic blank of electronic grade chemicals and special gas, lithium battery electrolyte additives such as" their "project construction, and introduced a batch of industry niche" little giant "enterprises, build fine chemical project of industrial cluster. HSCC has launched a decisive battle in the field of "bottleneck" and promote high-quality economic development.

1.    What are industrial gases

In industry field, the gaseous products under normal temperature and pressure are collectively referred to as industrial gas products.

According to the different preparation methods and application fields, industrial gases can be divided into bulk gases and special gases. Bulk gases mainly include air separation gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon and synthetic gases such as acetylene and carbon dioxide. Special gases mainly include electronic gases, high purity gases and standard gases. Bulk gas production and sales are large, but the purity requirements are not high. Although the production and sales of special gases are small, according to different uses, there are extremely strict requirements on the purity or composition of different special gases, the maximum allowable content of harmful impurities, the packaging, storage and transportation of products, etc., which belong to high-tech and high added value products.

2.    China's industrial gas is "bottle-necked"

As an industrial segment industry, industrial gases are widely used in traditional industries such as steel and petrochemicals, as well as growing industries such as electronic semiconductors, medical treatment and food.

"Precisely speaking, what 'stuck' is' electronic bulk gas' and 'electronic special gas'."As for the problem of industrial gases "bottle-necked", Bai Jiu, the former general manager of the electronics division of Linde Group in China, said in an interview with Shanghai News that China's non-electronic gases have certain international competitiveness, but due to factors such as technology and equipment manufacturing capacity, the competitiveness of domestic electronic gases is still relatively weak.

Watt gas related personnel said that industrial gas "bottleneck" is mainly reflected in large-scale integrated circuits, new display panels and other high-end areas, especially in the field of integrated circuits.

3.    Why China's Semiconductor Industry Is "bottle-necked" by Electronic Gas

Special gases have high technical barriers. The production process involves synthesis, purification, mixture preparation, filling, analysis and detection, gas cylinder treatment and other technology, the customer's requirements for purity and precision are much higher than bulk air separation gas. At present, China can only produce 20% of the special gases needed for IC production, and the rest rely heavily on imports. At present, the special gases that domestic enterprises can mass produce are still mainly concentrated in the cleaning, etching, lithography and other processes of integrated circuits, and only a few varieties of special gases in doping and deposition processes have made breakthroughs.

Special gases have higher certification barriers. For example, if a wafer manufacturer produces 50,000 wafers per month on an 8-inch wafer production line, quality problems with the gas products used in the production will result in the scrap of the entire production line, resulting in huge losses. Therefore, for downstream industry customers with high precision, such as LSI and new display panels, the selection of gas suppliers is extremely prudent and strict.

The multi-department joint meeting to discuss the "bottleneck" problem in the industrial gas field is expected to launch more policies to help accelerate the development of domestic industrial gas enterprises. With the rise of local manufacturers, there will be more and more domestic substitutes for imports, and the phenomenon that the industrial gas market is dominated by foreign companies will be gradually solved.

Edited by Financial World and Shanghai Securities News