Tantalum (Ta, tantalum, tantalum), which the United States recently imposed import restrictions on, is mostly used in semiconductor processes in Korea, and there are growing voices calling for securing a stable supply of tantalum to ensure the stability of domestic semiconductor materials.

In order to ensure a stable supply of tantalum, it was found that commercialization of recycling technology for tantalum scrap, which is exported overseas at a low price and reimported at a high price, is key.

According to domestic and international media, on the 25th, the U.S. Department of Defense announced in the Federal Register that it had banned the import of tantalum metal and alloys from four countries: North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran.

The U.S. Department of Defense has been enforcing a ban on tantalum imports from these four countries since October 2020 in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act, and it has been reported that this policy has now been finalized.

Tantalum has a high melting point of 3,017℃, high charge, low temperature coefficient of resistance, and excellent corrosion resistance, so it is used in the electronics industry as a semiconductor process target, and in the automobile industry as a high-capacity capacitor material, small capacitors, jet engine parts, and aircraft parts.

It is known that more than 90% of it is used in semiconductor processes in Korea.


In semiconductor processes, tantalum is used as a semiconductor barrier material. It is applied in the CVD process.

Most are supplied as high-purity sputtering targets, and some are also supplied in precursor form.

The exact size of the domestic semiconductor tantalum market is not known, but the industry estimates it to be worth between 300 billion and 350 billion won.

Looking at domestic tantalum import statistics, the import weight does not fluctuate much, but the import price continues to rise.




According to the Korea International Trade Association's export and import statistics, the price, which was $357 per kg in 2014, continued to rise to $413 in 2015, $518 in 2016, $544 in 2017, $569 in 2018, $706 in 2019, $867 in 2020, and $930 in 2021, and is expected to reach $861 in 2022.

Import weight was recorded at 211 tons in 2020 and 180 tons in 2021, a 14.5% decrease from the previous year. In 2022, 118 tons were imported as of July, an 11.1% increase from the previous year.

The total import amount was recorded at 167.27 million dollars in 2021, or approximately 199 billion won (based on the exchange rate on December 31, 2021), and as of July 2022 (based on the exchange rate on July 29, 2022), it is recorded at 102.1 million dollars, or approximately 133.1 billion won.

The largest importer in Korea is Japan. In 2021, Japan imported about $69,382 worth of tantalum, a 15.1% decrease from 2020, but twice that of second-place China.



The reason why Japan has such a high proportion of imports is closely related to tantalum recycling.

Most of the tantalum consumed domestically relies on imports, and more than 90% of the imports are used in semiconductor processes.

In the case of tantalum used in semiconductor processes, it is basically a high-purity product of the 5N grade, so most of the remaining scrap is also known to be of the high purity of the 5N and 4N grades. This means that scrap can be recycled into high-purity products that can be used in semiconductor processes.

However, there is a problem in that these scraps cannot be recycled domestically.

In the case of tantalum, the scrap price is basically expensive, and the recycling process is difficult, so it is understood that there are no companies in Korea that specialize in recycling.

There are two methods for recycling tantalum: wet process and dry process.

The wet process has the disadvantages of being a method of hydrofluoric acid/fluoride treatment, having a high environmental impact due to the use of fluoride and organic solvents, and high operating costs due to the complex process.

The dry process uses vacuum arc melting or electron beam melting, and does not require a wet process, so the environmental impact is reduced, but the disadvantage is the high cost of equipment. It is known that the equipment cost of installing an electron beam is approximately 25 billion won.

There are no companies in Korea that recycle tantalum for environmental or economic reasons, and most of the scrap is exported to Japan at low prices, recycled in Japan, and then imported back into Korea.

Accordingly, tantalum experts agree that in order to secure a stable supply of tantalum, an essential material used in semiconductor processes, and to prepare for global supply chain crises such as the recent suspension of hydrogen fluoride imports, technology for recycling scrap domestically must be commercialized quickly.

Meanwhile, it is reported that there are currently no companies in Korea that have commercialized or started a business related to tantalum recycling, and MTIG is known to be the only company that possesses recycling technology.

In the case of MTI, tantalum powder can be manufactured through a hydrogenation-dehydrogenation process, and a patent (No. 10-2014845) was registered for this technology in 2019.