Japan METI supply-security-plan grant: up to JPY 3bn for DIC Corporation semiconductor epoxy-resin capacity

Mechanism

DIC Corporation is a major Japanese chemicals producer whose Functional Products segment includes epoxy resins used in semiconductor packaging and encapsulation compounds. As AI-accelerator and advanced-logic packaging volumes rise, domestic supply security for the resin inputs that feed substrate and mold-compound production has become a METI policy focus alongside the fabs themselves.

METI's Supply Security Plan mechanism (under the 2022 Economic Security Promotion Act, see 2022-05-18-japan-economic-security-promotion-act) lets a company file a plan committing to a minimum continuous-production period for a designated "specified critical good" in exchange for a capex grant. This is plan certification No. 2 in the 2025 semiconductor tranche (2025半導体第2号), following the tranche's No. 1 certification for JX Metals (sputtering-target capacity, approved 18 July 2025) and preceding No. 3 for Nitto Boseki (low-thermal-expansion glass cloth, see 2025-08-07-japan-meti-nitto-boseki-glass-cloth-supply-security-grant).

The certified project: a new epoxy-resin plant at DIC's Chiba factory (Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture), max grant ~JPY 3bn (~USD 20.1m), targeting a ~59% increase in domestic production capacity for semiconductor-grade epoxy resin, with supply starting July 2029.

Severity is set low (2/5, quant) — this is a single-company capex subsidy of modest absolute size (~USD 20m), not a trade-restrictive measure. It is filed because it is a concrete data point in the broader Japan ESPA supply-chain-resilience program and extends the same materials-layer resilience push (following JX Metals and Nitto Boseki) into semiconductor-packaging chemistry rather than fab-layer or substrate-layer inputs.

Downstream implications

• Confirms epoxy resin for semiconductor packaging is now formally

designated under Japan's specified-critical-goods regime, alongside sputtering targets (JX Metals) and glass cloth (Nitto Boseki) from the same 2025 tranche — a materials-layer, not just fab-layer, resilience push.

• DIC's ~59% capacity expansion (online mid-2029) is a concrete supply-side

data point for semiconductor-packaging-chemistry bottleneck watchers.

• Third confirmed plan in the 2025 semiconductor tranche; watch METI's

semicon hub page for further tranche certifications (plan numbers 2025半導体第4号 onward).

Open questions

• Whether later 2025-tranche certifications beyond JX Metals (plan 1), DIC

(plan 2), and Nitto Boseki (plan 3) name other materials chokepoints worth tracking individually.

• Actual disbursed amount vs. the certified maximum grant, once METI

publishes execution data.