Japan and South Korea at loggerheads, a big problem for the hi-tech world

Not only the United States and China, it has been in place for some time another trade war, the one between South Korea and Japan, which is also affecting the world ofhi-tech at all levels. The beauty is that this story has its roots in the Second World War, when the Japanese carried out some atrocities against the South Koreans.

Not just a historical diatribe, but a real clash that resulted in the decision of the Seoul Supreme Court to seize the assets (by way of compensation) of Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, two Japanese companies guilty of having put the South Koreans to forced labor during the War.

A real affront to Japanwho, considering the war debt paid off for some time, has moved the issue to the economic front asking for the intervention of a third country to settle the matter.

In the meantime, we have gone from skirmishes to deeds, with Japan that has blocked exports to South Korea of ​​key raw materials for the semiconductor and screen industry. The issue also involved the citizens of their respective countries, with the boycott by South Koreans of Japanese products (for example beer) and other more or less mixed reactions.

The issue has not yet been resolved, so much so that the South Korean memory manufacturer SK Hynix has announced that it has started using materials from a South Korean supplier, releasing itself for the first time from the use of materials from Japan.

The company's top management has not disclosed the name of the supplier of high purity hydrogen fluoride (rumored to be Ram Technology Co Ltd.), used in chip cleaning and silicon etching. SK Hynix also pointed out that it has not completely replaced hydrogen fluoride from Japan.

It is good to remember that Japan supplies approximately 70% of the world's demand for fluorinated polyamide used in smartphone screens, but also fotoresist is the aforementioned high purity hydrogen fluoride, used in chip production.