Japan's Mitsui Chemicals plans NF3 exit by March 2026
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: HASHIMOTO Osamu) has decided to withdraw from the nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) business. Currently manufactured by the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Shimonoseki Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi; President & CEO: YOKAWA Naokazu). Production will cease at the end of March 2026, and sales will end within the same year.
Mitsui Chemicals will exit the nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) business by end-2026, ceasing production at its Shimonoseki subsidiary in March. The move aligns with its VISION 2030 plan to shift toward global specialty and green chemicals. Intense price competition, rising input costs, and limited profitability drove the decision despite cost-cutting efforts.
Background to the business withdrawal
Mitsui Chemicals' VISION 2030 Long-Term Business Plan positions 'Chemistry for Sustainable World' as the company's ideal vision. In pursuing portfolio reform as a basic strategy for achieving this plan, Mitsui Chemicals aims to become a truly global specialty company by leaning on the two key pillars of a high-growth, high-profitability global specialty chemicals business, and a sustainable green chemicals business centered on competitive derivatives.
The Semiconductor & Optical Materials Division of Mitsui Chemicals' ICT Solutions Business Sector is engaged in business associated with NF3, a gas used as a cleaning agent for semiconductor and liquid crystal display manufacturing equipment. However, the profitability of the business has been placed under extreme pressure by escalating price competition with overseas products, increasing raw material and utility costs, and rising repair and other costs. In response to this situation, Mitsui Chemicals has undertaken all possible efforts to rationalize the business and reduce costs, but has now determined that it is unfeasible to ensure the level of profitability required to sustain the business and has therefore decided to withdraw from it. Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (HU)
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