Korea Alcohol Group and its affiliates will spend a combined 450 billion won on an integrated semiconductor materials campus in the Yesan 2 General Industrial Complex, South Chungcheong Province, capping a years-long pivot from ethanol and commodity chemicals toward higher-value semiconductor process materials.

The earnings picture already reflects the shift. Korea Alcohol Industrial's standalone sales rose 8.6% year-on-year to 153.2 billion won in the first half of this year, while operating profit more than doubled, up 123% to 13.6 billion won, according to industry sources on Oct. 1. PURIT posted sales of 82.6 billion won and operating profit of 12.5 billion won, up 19.3% and 64.8% respectively. ENF Technology reported consolidated sales of 349.9 billion won and operating profit of 52.2 billion won, gains of 8.7% and 16%.

What does the group actually make?

The portfolio spans the photolithography and etching materials stack:

• Korea Alcohol Industrial produces normal butyl acetate — an organic solvent that tunes dissolution performance and volatility of semiconductor thinners — and says it is the only South Korean producer of the chemical. It entered electronic materials in 1999 after completing an electronic-grade normal butyl acetate plant in Ulsan.
• PURIT, founded in 2010 to recover and refine waste organic solvents, now supplies high-purity photolithography solvents: PGME, PGMEA, EEP and ethyl lactate. Semiconductor materials accounted for more than 80% of its first-half sales, at 66.8 billion won.
• ENF Technology supplies thinners, etchants, strippers, cleaning solutions, monomers and polymers for photolithography and etching, with recent growth led by hydrofluoric acid (HF)-based etchants it has successfully localized.

How are the affiliates linked?

The group has built what it describes as a circular value chain running from raw-material sourcing through advanced materials to recycling. KC&A sources chemical raw materials in South Korea and overseas and, per its own materials, supplies them to Korea Alcohol Industrial and ENF Technology. Korea Alcohol Industrial and PURIT produce the high-purity electronic-grade solvents; ENF Technology converts them into process chemicals such as thinners. PURIT then recovers waste organic solvents generated during manufacturing and refines them back into feedstock.

Internal flows already connect the chain commercially. PURIT's PGME and PGMEA feed ENF Technology's thinner products; its EEP goes to Dow Chemical and Dongjin Semichem, and its ethyl lactate to Dongjin Semichem and others.

ENF Technology itself has rebalanced from displays to semiconductors: semiconductor materials sales overtook display materials in 2020 and now represent roughly 65% of its semiconductor-related sales. The group also expanded by acquisition. In 2021 ENF Technology bought a stake in UBM to enter the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) slurry market — abrasive-and-chemical mixtures used for wafer planarization. Earlier this year it raised its holding in PAM Technology, a joint venture with Japan's Morita Chemical Industries, converting it into a consolidated subsidiary. PAM Technology produces HF-based buffered oxide etchant (BOE) and ammonia water, a raw material.

What happens at Yesan?

Korea Alcohol Industrial, ENF Technology and PURIT are building the integrated campus together. PURIT is moving fastest: it plans to invest about 45 billion won and complete production preparations in the first half of 2027, with the figure potentially rising to as much as 100 billion won depending on demand. Korea Alcohol Industrial and ENF Technology have already secured sites for 14.3 billion won and 31.8 billion won respectively.

The localization angle matters commercially. HF-based etchants, BOE and high-purity solvents have historically leaned on Japanese suppliers, and ENF Technology's success in localizing HF-based etchants is a concrete driver of its recent materials growth. Co-locating solvent production, process-chemical formulation and waste recovery on one site should cut logistics cost and shorten the recycling loop between PURIT and ENF Technology.

The group has set a 2030 target for Korea Alcohol Industrial of 805 billion won in consolidated sales, 88.2 billion won in operating profit and a return on equity of at least 12% — numbers that hinge on semiconductor materials continuing to displace ethanol and commodity chemicals as the earnings core, and on Yesan coming online on schedule.