Japan's top three photoresist makers to raise prices by over 15% from Oct 2026; domestic supply chain says limited impact

*By Wu Xuguang, Star Market Daily | September 24*

Three major Japanese photoresist manufacturers — JSR, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, and Shin-Etsu Chemical — have jointly announced a new global pricing system effective October 1, 2026. The base price increase for all product categories will be 15%, with long-term agreements for high-end ArF series products seeing increases of 16% to 22%.

In the secondary market, the semiconductor materials sector has shown notable movement, with photoresist-related listed companies attracting concentrated capital attention. Between September 16 and September 24, the photoresist concept stock index rose from 2,524.28 points to a short-term high of 2,601.90 points, a maximum gain of 3.08%. As of the close on September 24, the index stood at 2,552.74 points, down 1.89%, reflecting a modest short-term pullback.

Star Market Daily reporters interviewed major domestic wafer foundries — including Hua Hong Grace, Silex Integration, Nexchip Semiconductor, and Silan Micro — as well as key domestic photoresist companies such as Red Avenue New Materials, Nata Optoelectronics, Crystal Clear Electronic Materials, Dinglong Corporation, and Jiuri New Materials, to gather comprehensive feedback from both the supply and demand sides.

According to Star Market Daily research, the collective price hike by Japanese photoresist suppliers has had limited actual impact on domestic wafer manufacturers, with no significant cost shock. More notably, this external shift has opened an accelerated window for domestic substitution by Chinese photoresist companies.

Foundry Side: Minimal Cost Share, Limited Impact from Price Hikes

Photoresist is a core photosensitive consumable in the photolithography process of chip manufacturing.

A wafer processing company executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, analyzed the logic behind the collective price increase by Japanese photoresist leaders. The core driver is the sustained recovery of downstream semiconductor demand. Domestic leading foundries such as SMIC are seeing steadily rising fab utilization rates, driving continued demand for high-end photoresists. Overseas suppliers have publicly cited "capacity tightness" as the primary reason for the price adjustment.

Star Market Daily contacted SMIC for comment on the impact of photoresist price increases and capacity utilization, but had not received a response as of press time.

On September 22, a representative from Hua Hong Grace's securities department stated that the company had not yet received any formal price adjustment notice from suppliers. Even if price hikes are implemented, different suppliers will offer varying adjustment policies to different customer tiers, and the overall impact on production costs will be limited.

The representative further explained that domestic foundries have been advancing domestic photoresist supply chain substitution for years, typically adopting multi-sourcing models from both domestic and international suppliers. A single supplier's price adjustment will not directly affect the overall supply system. Additionally, for core critical materials, companies maintain safety inventories over certain periods to smooth out short-term price fluctuations.

Silan Micro also confirmed it had not yet received formal price adjustment notices.

On September 22, a representative from Silan Micro's board office noted that upstream raw material price increases do have an objective impact on foundries. For example, if a wafer company's annual photoresist procurement is 100 million yuan, a 10% price increase would add 10 million yuan in procurement costs. However, from an overall operational perspective, for a company with annual revenue in the tens of billions, a cost increase of tens of millions would not significantly impact overall operations.

A staff member from Silex Integration's securities department, which focuses on the analog chip赛道, similarly stated that photoresist accounts for only about 1% of the company's total costs — a very small share. Moreover, photoresist is divided into many categories. The ArF photoresist, which saw the largest price increase from Japanese suppliers, is primarily used in advanced process nodes. For Silex Integration, which focuses on analog chips, these specific categories may not even be in use, so the impact is currently negligible.

A representative from Nexchip Semiconductor confirmed this assessment, noting that wafer manufacturing is a typical heavy-asset industry where the largest cost component is equipment depreciation. Indirect materials as a whole account for a relatively low share of costs, and not all wafer product manufacturing processes require high-value ArF photoresist.

In fact, photoresist products in wafer manufacturing have always been characterized by "low volume, high unit price." Downstream customers prioritize batch stability far above price sensitivity.

According to industry sources, due to differences in process nodes and chip types, the comprehensive consumption of ArF photoresist per 12-inch wafer is only a few grams to over ten grams, with KrF photoresist consumption even lower. Under current mainstream pricing, KrF photoresist costs approximately 3–5 million yuan per ton, while ArF photoresist costs approximately 5–8 million yuan per ton.

For foundries, ensuring highly consistent performance across every batch of delivered photoresist is far more important than price fluctuations.

Domestic Photoresist Companies: Accelerated Downstream Validation

Against the backdrop of collective price hikes by Japanese photoresist giants, will domestic Chinese photoresist companies adjust their product pricing accordingly?

Dinglong Corporation stated that the overall domestic photoresist localization rate remains low. The company's current core goal is to achieve stable mass production of high-end photoresist products. Product pricing adjustments will only be considered after full capacity release and significant shipment scale increases.

According to Dinglong, the company is entirely focused on high-end semiconductor photoresist products for advanced process nodes. A 300-ton mass production line was officially commissioned in March 2026. The company currently has over 40 KrF and ArF high-end photoresist products, with each category accounting for approximately 50% of capacity.

On the shipment side, Dinglong has secured long-term orders worth tens of millions of yuan this year, with delivery cycles extending into 2027. These orders are being gradually fulfilled, covering eight semiconductor photoresist products. Additionally, over ten semiconductor photoresist products are undergoing downstream customer validation, with a target to convert some products in the tightened validation phase into formal customer orders by year-end.

Red Avenue New Materials is a leading domestic company that has achieved batch mass production of both KrF and ArF semiconductor photoresists. Currently, the overall domestic localization rate for ArF photoresist remains below 5%, yet this category accounts for nearly 50% of the domestic photoresist market by sales value, making it the highest-value segment.

"A notable change is that the pace of domestic substitution has clearly accelerated recently. Downstream foundries are providing significantly more testing opportunities, and the basic validation cycle has generally shortened from 1–2 years to 6–12 months," said a representative from Red Avenue's board office. The company has multiple ArF photoresist products that have completed full-process customer validation and achieved stable batch supply.

In terms of capacity and shipments, Red Avenue's semiconductor photoresist orders have reached ton-level sales, leading the industry. The company has a total semiconductor photoresist capacity of 1,000 tons in Shanghai. According to its 2026 semi-annual report, the semiconductor segment generated approximately 200 million yuan in revenue, with the vast majority coming from photoresist products.

A representative from Crystal Clear Electronic Materials noted that semiconductor photoresist accounts for 80%–90% of the company's total photoresist revenue. Among these, UV broadband negative photoresist and I-line photoresist, which have achieved large-scale mass production, account for a higher share. In the high-end DUV photoresist category, ArF and KrF photoresists have achieved small-batch sales.

Nata Optoelectronics is a core benchmark company in the domestic ArF photoresist segment and is simultaneously developing KrF photoresist.

According to a representative from Nata's board office, the company's ArF photoresist design capacity is 50 tons per year, currently in the capacity ramp-up phase. Six products have passed downstream validation and achieved formal sales, generating approximately 20 million yuan in revenue in 2025. In the first half of 2026, ArF photoresist sales revenue grew 48% year-on-year.

Other domestic companies, including Hengkun New Materials, Eightech Materials, and Jiuri New Materials, are also advancing semiconductor photoresist projects.

On September 22, Jiuri New Materials stated that its core semiconductor photoresist focus is on G-line and I-line products, which have generated small sales revenue. Hengkun New Materials disclosed in a June 2026 research briefing that its ArF photoresist has achieved small-batch supply.

Long-Term Industry Trend: Growing Demand for High-End Photoresist

A senior executive from a leading domestic photoresist company analyzed that continued investment in AI computing infrastructure is directly driving a surge in upstream semiconductor photoresist demand. Major domestic logic chip and memory chip manufacturers are in continuous expansion mode, with rigid demand steadily rising.

According to data from CEMIA, a subsidiary of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, China's overall photoresist market reached 19.806 billion yuan in 2025, up 23.2% year-on-year. The integrated circuit segment accounted for 6.637 billion yuan, and the domestic semiconductor photoresist market is expected to reach 7.794 billion yuan in 2026, representing 17.43% year-on-year growth.

Star Market Daily preliminary research indicates that there are currently approximately 38 core domestic companies engaged in semiconductor photoresist and supporting raw material production. Among them, nearly 20 A-share listed companies are involved in semiconductor photoresist, including Red Avenue New Materials, Shanghai Xinyang, Nata Optoelectronics, Hengkun New Materials, Eightech Materials, and Jiuri New Materials.

However, in terms of localization rate, the domestic photoresist industry started relatively late, and overall penetration remains low. Industry estimates suggest that the current domestic localization rate for KrF photoresist is approximately 10%, while for ArF photoresist it is only about 5% — far from achieving large-scale substitution.

Regarding the progress of domestic photoresist supply chain adoption, an industry insider noted that overseas photoresist suppliers have not cut off supply. Downstream foundries still prioritize Japanese products for mainstream procurement orders, and domestic photoresist is only in the early stages of gradual supply chain introduction.

So what are the core obstacles preventing large-scale domestic substitution of Japanese photoresist products? Are they downstream validation processes, upstream raw material supply, or the mass production process of photoresist itself?

Industry sources generally believe that bottlenecks exist across multiple links in the entire industrial chain: downstream foundry validation processes have clear industry standards, and customer willingness to switch requires strong product performance. Even after product validation, with current stable supply from Japanese suppliers, downstream customers are unlikely to abruptly switch core materials. Whether domestic photoresist can achieve full technical equivalence with imported products and achieve long-term stable mass production are issues that need to be progressively resolved.

In other words, the core variable determining the final ramp-up pace of domestic photoresist is always the downstream foundries' trust in the product's long-term process stability.

A head of a major foundry also told Star Market Daily that while companies have a strong willingness to promote domestic substitution, the sole criterion for selecting suppliers remains product performance.

The Silan Micro board office representative further stated that the company never deliberately distinguishes between domestic and foreign suppliers. Instead, it conducts comprehensive evaluations based on product performance levels, parameter indicators, and total cost. As long as domestic photoresist fully meets the foundry's usage standards, there are no hard barriers to entering the supply chain.