The destruction of the world's largest neon production facility in Mariupol, Ukraine, threatens a long-term global supply shortage of neon.

According to the semiconductor specialty gas industry, Russia has recently been putting all its efforts into airstrikes on Mariupol, Ukraine, and key facilities at the Azopstal steel mill, the final battleground in Mariupol, have been destroyed.

As of the 9th, the Russian military is continuing its attack on the Azovtal steel plant in an attempt to capture Mariupol, while the Ukrainian military is reported to have recently completed the evacuation of civilians and is making a final stand.

The Azopstal Steel Mill, built during the former Soviet Union, is the world's largest steel mill and is known as a massive facility with underground fortresses to prepare for nuclear war.

In particular, the Azopstal steel mill is said to have installed a number of ultra-large ASUs, befitting a large steel mill, and to have produced the world's largest amount of neon at this facility.

During this process, most of the neon production facilities at the Azopstal steelworks were reportedly destroyed.

The industry believes that the destruction of this neon production facility will have a fatal impact on the global neon supply and demand, resulting in a permanent supply failure rather than a temporary disruption due to war.

In the past, the price of neon has fluctuated greatly depending on the supply and demand trends of neon.

In particular, prices fluctuated greatly depending on the supply situation in Ukraine, and in 2014, when floods occurred in Odessa Oblast, Ukraine, prices surged by more than 460%. there is.

Afterwards, supply stabilized and prices regained stability, but this was because the existing production facilities were still intact.

On the other hand, the current supply disruption of neon from Ukraine is expected to be a long-term disruption or supply failure rather than a short-term disruption, so future prices are expected to skyrocket.



Industry sources say that in the four months immediately following the war, the customs clearance price of neon alone soared by more than 370%, and the actual consumer price rose by nearly 20 times.

The industry predicts that future neon price increases will be unpredictably severe, especially as domestic neon consumption is rapidly increasing for semiconductor laser gas and mixed gas applications, and Korea is the world's largest neon consumer.

In particular, looking at the recent neon supply and demand situation, the supply of neon is very difficult due to the interruption of supply from major production sites Russia and Ukraine, supply delays caused by logistics disruptions in the United States, and the lockdown of Shanghai, China due to COVID-19.

It is reported that France is the only region where neon can be supplied at present, but this also has the disadvantage of time delays because the raw neon produced in South Africa must be transported to France, refined, and then exported again.

The industry is stableThe company is in a position where it needs to establish or discover new neon production facilities for the sake of supply, but since this is related to the existing economic base such as the steel industry, it is not expected to be easy to build production facilities, and no company is expected to step forward.

In Korea, POSCO has set up a production facility in Gwangyang to supply domestically, but commercial production is expected to take considerable time.

A POSCO official stated that the facility will be able to supply more than 40% of the domestic demand for neon by 2021.

The semiconductor specialty gas industry predicted that prices will continue to rise for a considerable period of time, as it is important to secure an alternative supply line for neon produced in Mariupol, Ukraine, as it will be difficult to recover from the destruction of the production facility there in the future, but this is currently impossible.

It was also predicted that the supply shortage would continue for a long time.