Japan METI supply-security-plan grant: JPY 2.5bn for IHI Master Metal nickel-alloy aircraft castings

Mechanism

IHI Master Metal (a subsidiary of IHI Corporation) manufactures nickel- and cobalt-based superalloy investment castings for aircraft engine and structural applications, supplying customers in Japan, Europe, the US and Asia. Nickel-alloy precision castings sit on the same global-supply-chokepoint list (alongside titanium forgings and CMC) that METI flagged in its 2023 Basic Policy for Ensuring Stable Supply of Aircraft Parts.

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 multi-year continuous-production period for a designated "specified critical good" in exchange for a capex grant. This is certification No. 18 on METI's aircraft-parts supply-security register, and the third plan filed in the 2025 aircraft-parts tranche (２０２５航空機の部品第３号－１), covering the "casting (nickel alloy)" category — the same material category previously certified for IHI Castings Co., Ltd. (２０２４航空機の部品第３号－１, approved September 2024) and for Noritake Co., Ltd. (２０２５航空機の部品第２号ー１, approved July 2025).

Severity is set low (2/5, quant) — this is a single-company capex subsidy of modest absolute size (~USD 16.6m), not a trade-restrictive measure. It is filed because it is a concrete data point in Japan's aircraft-parts materials-resilience track under the Economic Security Promotion Act, mirroring the parallel semiconductor-materials track (e.g. the Nitto Boseki glass-cloth grant, 2025-08-07-japan-meti-nitto-boseki-glass-cloth-supply-security-grant).

Downstream implications

• Confirms nickel-alloy investment castings for aircraft parts are now a

repeat-certified category under Japan's specified-critical-goods regime, alongside titanium-alloy castings/forgings and crucible materials on the same METI register.

• Third nickel-alloy-casting certification on the aircraft-parts track after

IHI Castings (Sept 2024) and Noritake (July 2025) — a pattern of state support concentrating in a small pool of domestic nickel-superalloy casters serving both civil and defense aerospace supply chains.

• Parallels the semiconductor-materials supply-security track structurally,

suggesting METI is replicating the same capex-grant-for-production-commitment template across multiple specified-critical-good categories.

Open questions

• Exact grant share of total project cost and the production-commitment

term, once METI publishes the plan-18 certification PDF (not yet indexed at the individual plan-summary link at time of filing).

• Whether further 2025-26 aircraft-parts tranche certifications name

additional materials chokepoints (e.g. CMC, large forgings) worth tracking individually.