News Release

FY2022

May 13, 2022

JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corporation

Funding for construction of a new plant in Arizona, USA

JX Nippon Metals & Mining Corporation (President: Murayama Seiichi; "the Company") is pleased to announce that its group company JX Nippon Mining & Metals USA, Inc. (CEO: Kuwabara Masago; "JXUSA") has concluded a financing agreement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC; Governor: Maeda Tadashi). This will take the form of a syndicated loan with financing from Mizuho Bank, Ltd. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. This will enable the Company to procure the funding needed to strengthen its business in the manufacturing of sputtering targets for semiconductors in the USA, which is carried out through JXUSA.

 

The Company's sputtering targets for semiconductors are indispensable materials in the assembly of fine interconnects for advanced semiconductors. JXUSA is located in the state of Arizona, a hub of the US semiconductor industry, where it is responsible for the processing and sale of sputtering targets in the United States.

 

Today, accelerating moves toward digital transformation and decarbonization are driving rapid expansion in the semiconductor industry. A number of manufacturers of advanced semiconductors are planning successive investments in the United States. In light of this, the Company has decided to acquire through JXUSA additional land roughly six times the size of JXUSA's current site in Arizona, and will flexibly expand its production capacity for sputtering targets in response to customer needs *. By using this financing to carry out these measures, we will contribute to maintaining and improving the international competitiveness of the domestic industry as a whole, and to the strengthening of supply chains in the semiconductor industry.

 

As well as using the site as a base for production of sputtering targets for semiconductors, our group also intends to make it the center of its business in the advanced materials field in North America in the future.

 

Our group will continue to take steps toward becoming a technology-based corporate group, as set out in its Long-Term Vision 2040, and will aim to be a global enterprise that contributes to social development and innovation through advanced materials.

 

* For more information, please see our news release dated March 10, 2022, "Acquisition of Building Site in Arizona."