POSCO Group (Chairman Choi Jeong-woo) is expanding its rare gas business for semiconductors.

On the 22nd, POSCO Holdings signed a joint venture agreement with China's Zhongtai Cryogenic Technology (hereinafter referred to as Zhongtai) for the production of high-purity rare gases.

Zhongtai is a gas-related equipment manufacturing and engineering company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China, and has specialized technologies in the gas field, including rare gas production equipment and air separation equipment.

High-purity rare gases refer to neon (Ne), xenon (Xe), and krypton (Kr) gases with a purity of 99.999%, which are mainly used in cutting-edge industries such as semiconductors, displays, and satellite propulsion.

In order to respond to the growing domestic demand for high-purity rare gases, POSCO Holdings has decided to establish a high-purity rare gas production plant with an annual capacity of 130,000 N㎥ in cooperation with Zhongtai.

The goal is to start construction of the factory on the Gwangyang Donghoan site in 2024 and begin commercial production by the end of 2025. The joint venture shares are 75.1% and 24.9% for POSCO Holdings and Zhongtai, respectively, and the annual production capacity of 130,000 N㎥ is enough to supply 52% of the domestic semiconductor market.

Through the joint venture agreement, POSCO Holdings will stably supply crude rare gases produced at POSCO’s steel mills to the joint venture’s production plant, and Zhongtai will provide facilities and technology to produce high-purity rare gases from crude rare gases.

POSCO has been commercially producing crude neon gas (Ne), a raw material for high-purity rare gases, since January of last year, and plans to gradually expand its production items to include crude xenon (Xe) and crude krypton (Kr) starting in 2024.

Because rare gases, which exist in extremely small quantities in the air, can only be produced with large-scale air separation equipment capable of processing large amounts of air, domestic companies have mainly imported and used rare gases from the United States, China, Ukraine, and other countries.

As POSCO Holdings has begun full-scale domestic production of rare gases, it will be able to contribute to stabilizing the supply chain by domestically producing high-purity rare gases for semiconductors, which had previously been largely dependent on imports. In particular, POSCO Holdings’ investment in this new business is significant in that it was possible to make quick decisions and make investments thanks to the government’s support for regulatory innovation for the Gwangyang Donghoan site in April.