China’s Dinglong Soars to Record After Securing New Photoresist Orders From Wafer Giants

(Yicai) June 12 -- Dinglong’s stock surged to a new record-high after the Chinese electronic chemical firm received more high-end photoresist product orders from leading wafer maker clients.Dinglong [SHE: 300054] closed up 4.7 percent at CNY78.99 (USD11.67) in Shenzhen today, after earlier soaring as much as 17.3 percent to its new intraday record of CNY88.55.Two top wafer manufacturers recently ordered nearly 1,000 additional gallons of photoresists from Dinglong’s factory in Qianjiang, China’s central Hubei province, thanks to the stable performance and good usage effects of the products, the supplier announced yesterday, without revealing the names of the clients.Since the Qianjiang factory, with an annual production capacity of 300 tons, started operation in March, it has delivered hundreds of gallons of immersion argon fluoride and krypton fluoride photoresists to the two wafer makers for mass production, Dinglong noted.Dinglong has secured orders for eight high-end photoresist products -- four ArF and four KrF photoresists -- from multiple mainstream wafer fabs in China, five of which in the second quarter alone, the firm said, adding that several other products are expected to receive orders within this year.Dinglong has deployed over 40 high-end wafer photoresists, nearly 30 of which have already started verification and testing by clients. The 10 of them that have achieved the fastest progress have entered the phase of gallon-scale sample testing. The company has also kicked off the development and production of several lithography auxiliary materials.The company’s ArF and KrF photoresist business adopts a customized research, development, and production model, with extremely high technical barriers. The products are mainly applied in the production of high-end memory chips, such as three-dimensional not-and and dynamic random access memory chips, and high-performance logic device chips.Dinglong initially focused on printer consumables. It entered the electronic chemical industry in 2012 and launched its photoresist business in 2022. Its Qianjiang plant is China’s first full-process mass production facility of photoresists for high-end chips.The global high-end photoresist market is dominated by Japanese and US companies. KrF photoresists made by Chinese firms only account for about 3 percent to 5 percent of the domestic market, while ArF photoresists for less than 1 percent. KrF photoresists are mainly used for 130 to 250 nanometer chips, while ArF photoresists for wafers of 14 nm and below.Editor: Futura Costaglione