Japan’s Fujifilm Electronic Materials is to invest about $140 million to enhance the development, production and quality evaluation functions for advanced semiconductor materials at two sites in Japan. This comes in response to growing demand for semiconductors in both volume and quality terms and follows the start-up of a CMP slurries plant at Kumamoto in January.

Merck KGaA is to spend €20 million to expand the R&D and manufacturing capabilities at its site in Shizuoka, Japan, where it opened a 6,000 m² facility in January. Due to be complete by January 2022, this will mainly address demand in areas driven by the digital economy boom.