Sumitomo Bakelite: Visit to Singapore site Quick Note

Research evidence excerpt

Sumitomo Bakelite: Visit to Singapore site Quick Note

d the company has been working to address customers'

technical challenges over the years. This has led to a high market share of 50% for

encapsulation materials in Southeast Asia (versus its global market share of 40%).

Encapsulants are made by mixing resin, filler, and additives, which then go through

processes such as compression and metal removal before finally being formed into tablet

shapes. Encapsulants are used in back-end processes in semiconductor production, and

protect semiconductor chips from heat, external shocks, humidity, and light. Its direct

customers are outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies and

integrated design manufacturers (IDMs) handling back-end processes, and Sumitomo

Bakelite also owns the same encapsulation equipment used by its customers for R&D

purposes. Warping and heat are issues for large semiconductor modules and Sumitomo

Bakelite has systems in place to evaluate the reliability of finished encapsulants.

Outlook: Shifting sales mix to high value-added AI server applications

While its Singapore site has tax advantages over other locations, personnel costs are

high, so the company plans to prioritize increasing production capacity in other regions

going forward. Sumitomo Bakelite also has manufacturing bases in Taiwan and China,

and is considering switching to shipping encapsulants, which are in high demand, from

other regions. The company has also been working to automate manufacturing processes

at its Singapore facility, including introducing automated guided forklifts (AGFs). It also

plans to shift the sales mix at its Singapore site over to high value-added AI server

applications. Sumitomo Bakelite's semiconductor materials segment generates margins of