Murata joins hands with Ishihara to expand production of MLCC materials

On March 17, according to Ishihara Industry News, Murata will establish a joint venture company with its wholly-owned subsidiary Fuji Titanium Industry, named MF Material, to engage in the manufacture and sales of MLCC material "barium titanate".

Fuji Titanium Industry is one of Murata's barium titanate suppliers. With the trend of electrification of automobiles, the demand for MLCC is expected to further expand, and the importance of barium titanate is increasing day by day. Therefore, Fuji Titanium Industry will spin off the barium titanate manufacturing business and establish MF Material. Ishihara Industry will contribute 10%, and Murata Manufacturing will contribute 35%. It is expected to be established in June 2023.

The new factory will be built on the existing factory site in Fuji Titanium Nobeoka City to increase the production of barium titanate. Fuji Titanium will receive technical support and manufacturing technology from Murata Manufacturing Co., thereby further improving quality and production efficiency.

Source: Ishihara Industry

Taiyo Yuden's "barium titanate" new plant has been completed

In addition to Murata's expansion of barium titanate production, Taiyo Yuden's new MLCC material "barium titanate" factory has also been completed recently.

According to Taiyo Yuden's news on March 1, in order to cope with the increase in demand for MLCC, the new factory for MLCC material "barium titanate" built in the Yawatahara factory area has been completed. After the trial production of the new plant, it is planned to start operation in fiscal year 2023.

Source: Taiyo Yuden

According to EETimes, the new factory building is a four-story building with a construction area of about 6,600 square meters and a construction area of about 20,500 square meters. The investment in the building alone is about 5 billion yen, and the total investment and production scale, including production equipment, have not been disclosed.

Taiyo Yuden announced in June 2021 that the MLCC market is expected to continue to expand in the future due to the demand for automotive electronics, self-server, base station communication equipment, and 5G smartphones. Therefore, the above-mentioned new MLCC material factory will be built.

MLCC cost: ceramic materials such as barium titanate account for the majority

Barium titanate is mainly used in the production and manufacture of electronic components such as MLCC, single-board ceramic capacitors, thermistors, piezoelectric ceramics, microwave ceramics, etc., especially in the production of MLCC, and its application scale is relatively large.

From a cost point of view, ceramic materials such as barium titanate, strontium zirconate, and barium zirconate titanate are the main components of MLCC manufacturing costs. Generally speaking, the cost of MLCC is mainly composed of ceramic powder, electrode materials, packaging materials, labor costs, etc. Among them, ceramic powder accounts for a large proportion, accounting for 20%-25% of low-capacity MLCC products, and as high as 35%-45% of high-capacity MLCC finished products.

MLCC cost analysis

Due to the high threshold of nano-dispersion manufacturing technology and process of ceramic powder, domestic ceramic powder manufacturers can meet the production needs of low-end MLCC at present, but still rely on imports for special-function, ultra-fine and high-purity powder to meet high-end MLCC production need.

Taking barium titanate as an example, from the analysis of enterprise strength, barium titanate enterprises at home and abroad can be divided into three camps: the first camp is multinational companies such as Murata and Sakai Chemical Company, whose barium titanate production technology is advanced, and the products are concentrated in China. The high-end field is mainly for self-use or supply to multinational MLCC companies; the second camp is China Ceramic Materials, the company is the second company in the world to produce barium titanate by hydrothermal method, and the product quality is higher than other domestic manufacturers; The three camps include Hubei Tiantian Ceramics, Songyuan Electronics, Besco, etc. Their scale is small, and their products are mainly concentrated in the low-end field.

In recent years, the market competitiveness of domestic barium titanate has been continuously improved, and domestic MLCC enterprises have continuously increased investment in technology, gradually shortening the gap with overseas leaders such as Murata, Taiyo Yuden, and TDK. The localization rate of MLCC has continued to increase, driving The demand for barium titanate material is increasing. In 2021, the demand for barium titanate in China will reach about 25,000 tons.

Source:WANGYIHAO