On March 20, 2026, Qianjiang New Materials, a subsidiary of Dinglong Corporation, officially completed and put into operation its 300 ton ArF/KrF high-end wafer photoresist production line, marking the large-scale implementation of domestically controllable high-end photoresist production capacity and completely reversing the previous passive situation of small batch samples and unstable production and supply. This production line focuses on two core application scenarios of memory chip and logic chip manufacturing, with two main categories of immersion ArF photoresist and dry KrF photoresist. These two types of photoresist are essential core materials for 12 inch mature and characteristic process wafer manufacturing, occupying an irreplaceable position in the three core processes of etching, thin film, and photolithography. For a long time, the global market has been monopolized by three Japanese companies, JSR, Tokyo Yinghua, and Shinetsu Chemical. The import dependence of domestic wafer fabs has been higher than 92% for a long time, making it a typical bottleneck in the semiconductor materials field.

In the early stage of production, Dinglong Corporation completed the batch delivery of two top domestic 12 inch wafer manufacturing enterprises. The first batch of hundreds of gallons of photoresist were directly imported into the customer's mass production line for continuous wafer running. The fluctuation range of the yield rate for 30 consecutive days was controlled within ± 0.8%, and the stability index reached the same level as international first-line brands, breaking the inherent bias of overseas manufacturers that "the yield rate of domestically produced photoresist cannot be sustained and stable". With stable mass production performance, the two major wafer manufacturing customers immediately issued additional purchase orders, with a total order volume of nearly 1000 gallons and an order amount exceeding 100 million yuan, becoming the largest single commercial order for high-end photoresist in China, officially opening a new stage of large-scale substitution of imported photoresist with domestic products.

From the perspective of product matrix layout, as of the production line production node, Dinglong Co., Ltd. has completed the finalization of 8 high-end wafer photoresist products and achieved batch order landing. Among them, there are 4 ArF series and 4 KrF series products each, covering the full process nodes of storage chip trench etching, gate lithography, logic chip metal layer lithography, and passivation layer lithography, which can fully adapt to the mainstream 12 inch mass production production line process specifications of Changxin Storage, Changjiang Storage, SMIC, and Huahong Semiconductor. In addition, the company is synchronously planning and developing more than 40 high-end photoresist products of different specifications. Nearly 30 products have completed customer sample delivery and entered the laboratory verification stage, of which more than 10 products have completed gallon level engineering sample testing, just one step away from batch order conversion. The product lineup has sufficient reserves and can continue to undertake the incremental import substitution orders from domestic wafer factories.

In terms of production capacity planning, the first phase of Qianjiang New Materials' 30 ton photoresist experimental production line has been operating stably for many years, continuously iterating formula processes, purification processes, and dust-free filling processes, accumulating complete production process data for the second phase's 300 ton large-scale production line; The design annual production capacity of the second phase production line is 300 tons, which will be gradually released in two ramp up cycles. It is expected to achieve full production operation in the fourth quarter of 2026, and the company's total high-end photoresist production capacity will rank first among domestic manufacturers. At the same time, the company reserves land for the construction of the third phase production line, and will initiate a new round of capacity expansion at any time according to the pace of downstream wafer fab expansion and import substitution progress, to ensure medium - and long-term supply capacity.

At the level of industrial chain collaboration, high-end photoresist is not a single chemical, but consists of four core components: photosensitive resin, photoinitiator, monomer, and specialized solvent. Overseas photoresist manufacturers have long been bound to upstream raw material suppliers, forming a closed-loop supply chain and restricting downstream wafer fabs from switching to domestic photoresist. Dinglong Co., Ltd. is simultaneously expanding its upstream layout to independently produce photoresist specific resins and high-purity solvents, achieving an internal self-sufficiency rate of over 65% for core raw materials, no longer subject to the risk of supply cuts from overseas raw material manufacturers. At the same time, it is driving domestic photoresist reagent and high-purity chemical supporting enterprises to synchronize technological iteration, forming a complete localized upstream and downstream photoresist industry cluster. Changjiang Storage and Changxin Storage, two major domestic storage original factories, continue to expand their production capacity of 12 inch wafers. The monthly demand for KrF photoresist continues to rise, with the annual KrF photoresist procurement of the two storage manufacturers alone exceeding 1200 gallons, locking in long-term stable downstream demand for domestic photoresist.

According to the agency's calculation data, the global ArF+KrF photoresist market size will be about 7.8 billion dollars in 2026, and the demand scale of the local market in Chinese Mainland will reach 2.1 billion dollars, but the localization rate will be less than 11%, and the alternative space will be extremely broad. In the past, domestic photoresist companies were generally stuck in three major pain points: continuous fluctuations in mass production yield, poor batch consistency, and lack of supporting testing equipment. They could only conduct small-scale trial orders and could not enter mainstream mass production lines; Dinglong Co., Ltd.'s large-scale production and large additional orders have confirmed that local manufacturers have fully overcome all technical difficulties in the mass production end.

Long term challenges still objectively exist: Japanese photoresist manufacturers continue to lower prices to resist domestic substitution, coupled with a generally 6-12 month photoresist verification cycle, and the slow progress of switching suppliers for small and medium-sized wafer fabs; At the same time, EUV photoresist and advanced process high NA ArF photoresist technology have higher barriers to entry, and domestic manufacturers are still in the laboratory research and development stage. However, the production capacity of mature and characteristic process chips corresponding to KrF and immersion ArF photoresist continues to expand, and the demand for domestic substitution rigidity is clear. Leading material companies such as Dinglong Co., Ltd. have already obtained admission tickets. With the continuous release of production capacity and product iteration, the market share is expected to steadily increase year by year, and the domestic substitution of semiconductor materials has reached a substantial turning point.