A 50:50 venture with OCI for semiconductor polysilicon in Malaysia, and a Vietnamese subsidiary (2023)

The same ground, a different design

The first move was to team up with the buyer. OCI of South Korea, which took the plant off Tokuyama’s hands in 2017, is an equal partner six years later. It looks like the same ground, the same business and the same counterparty with only the positions exchanged, but the substance is not the same. Where the earlier venture was aimed at commodity solar grade, this one is confined to a semi-finished product for semiconductors, with finishing and sales left in each parent’s hands. Using the partner’s land and equipment while refusing to give up the final process and the customer is the line drawn from the previous loss.

A cautious design is not the same as a small bet, however. The joint venture is capitalised at the equivalent of about US$218 million, its establishment ran fifteen months behind the original schedule, and it has got no further than a groundbreaking ceremony. The Vietnamese subsidiary handles only the final process, so dividing the process across borders means that if any one part stalls, the whole thing stops. Whether the stance taken to avoid the last failure has invited a different kind of fragility cannot be judged until there is an operating record.