[News] China Photoresist Maker Hengkun Goes Public on STAR Market with YMTC-Tied Fund

While China’s progress in high-end chipmaking equipment, such as SiCarrier and AMIES’ DUV systems, draws attention, the country is also advancing in key semiconductor materials. Notably, domestic leader Xiamen Hengkun New Material, a top photoresist manufacturer, went public on the Shanghai STAR Market today, according to 36Kr and ijiwei.

As 36Kr highlights, citing Weibo user ZeR0, China still relies heavily on imported photoresists and precursors. The market remains dominated by a handful of U.S. and Japanese companies, including DuPont, Shin-Etsu, Tokyo Ohka, Nissan Chemical, and Fujifilm. Yet, founded in 2004, Hengkun has been closing domestic gaps, providing photoresist solutions for Chinese fabs producing 3D NAND above 128 layers, DRAM under 18nm, and logic chips below 14nm, the report adds.

Thus, it is worth noting that as per Tencent, Hengkun New Materials’ strategic investors include Yangtze Memory-backed Changcun Hongtu Equity Investment (Wuhan) Partnership (Limited Partnership), which contributed RMB 40 million.

36Kr notes that in this IPO, Hengkun New Materials raised RMB 1.01 billion (net RMB 892 million) to fund its Phase II IC precursor project and advanced IC materials project. The projects are set to add about 500 tons of KrF (krypton fluoride)/ArF (argon fluoride) photoresists and other lithography materials, and 760 tons of TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate) and other precursor materials, the report adds.

Key Products Driving Growth

In detail, ijiwei reports that from 2022 to 2024, the company’s sales climbed from RMB 322 million to RMB 548 million, with net profits steady around RMB 90 million. According to 36Kr, Hengkun New Materials’ in-house products, including SOC (Spin-On Carbon), BARC (Bottom Anti-Reflective Coating), KrF and i-Line photoresists, as well as precursors like TEOS, have all reached mass production.

Notably, ijiwei suggests its SOC products, essential for wafer lithography, tripled over three years to RMB 232 million in 2024, capturing over 10% of the domestic market and displacing suppliers like Nissan Chemical and Shin-Etsu. Meanwhile, BARC products have sustained 140%+ annual growth since 2021, the report adds.

What stands out are Hengkun’s ArF and KrF photoresists, used in deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography for semiconductor wafers. As ijiwei notes, its KrF photoresists, launched in 2022, surged nearly 30-fold to RMB 13.52 million by 2024. In the meantime, 36Kr notes that its ArF immersion photoresist has completed validation and entered small-scale sales, mainly used in advanced NAND and DRAM memory chips, as well as logic chips at 90nm nodes and below.

With domestic adoption rates for KrF at 1–2% and ArF under 1%, this growth highlights both Hengkun’s performance and the acceleration of domestic substitution, the report says.

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