Samsung Electronics faces rising costs for hydrofluoric acid used in semiconductor wafer production. China supplies 90% of the raw materials to Korean chemical manufacturers. A crisis in the Strait of Hormuz disrupted the global sulfur supply.
Chinese sulfuric acid prices more than doubled recently. China halted exports of the chemical on May 1. Import prices for anhydrous hydrogen fluoride rose 40% since January.
Samsung and SK Hynix expect these cost increases to affect contracts between late June and July. The development adds cost pressure to the tight memory market. Analysts expect minimal impact on memory prices as the chemical is a small portion of total production costs.