With the red clouds in the sky and the melodious sound of the tide, the coastal city of Qingdao attracts and soothes the mind and body of every tourist. The 14th Indium&Bismuth&Germanium&Gallium Forum organized by Asian Metal was held in Qingdao, Shandong on August 19, 2022. Due to the severe situation of the epidemic, this forum was postponed from mid-March to late August, and changed from Sanya, Hainan to Qingdao, Shandong. Despite several twists and turns, it was still successfully concluded with the strong support of the industry. Nearly 120 representatives from home and abroad attended the event through online and offline forms.

The conference was formally held at 9:00 AM on August 19. Mr. Jiajun Zhang, Research Director of Asian Metal, announced the official start of the forum as a special host. Mr. Jiajun Zhang said that currently, the non-ferrous industry suffered abrupt changes from COVID-19, power restriction, Carbon Emission Peak policy, etc. The prices of base metal generally rise while those of non-ferrous metal vary. The forum would provide a face-to-face opportunity for market participants to meet new clients, maintain regular clients, discuss and share market situation, and listen to brilliant analysis and insightful views from insiders on market focus and hot topics, in order to inspire wisdom and seize opportunities.

Subsequently, Mr. Hang Zhao, Marketing Director of Yunnan Lincang Xinyuan Germanium Industry Co., Ltd., the sponsor of this forum, delivered an opening speech for the conference. Yunnan Germanium is a world-renowned national high-tech enterprise integrating germanium mining, deep processing, R&D and production of optoelectronic semiconductor new materials. It is the largest germanium industry leader with the most complete industrial chain in Asia, and the only company listed on the main board in the domestic germanium industry. Yunnan Germanium has built seven important production lines including high-end germanium series products, fiber grade germanium tetrachloride, germanium SOC for high-efficiency solar cell, high-purity gallium arsenide SOC and high-quality indium phosphide SOC; it has studied and developed eight categories of products, such as high-end series products of germanium, optoelectronic semiconductor new materials, which have achieved the domestic leading and world advanced level, filled the domestic gap and realized localization substitution. In recent years, the company’s production and sales volume of germanium series products rank first in China and Asia. Mr. Hang Zhao said that he was very glad to meet you all in Qingdao surrounded by red tiles, green trees, blue sea and azure sky. This year is the post-era for the world after fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic and the first year to explore the path of global economic recovery. At a critical period when the non-ferrous industry suffered abrupt changes and sought to break the situation, insiders gathered in inclusive Qingdao, to discuss the future and development. Yunnan Germanium extended warm congratulations on the holding of the 14th Indium&Bismuth&Germanium&Gallium Forum, sincere welcome to domestic and foreign guests who participated in this forum, and expressed heartfelt thanks to Asian Metal for its unremitting efforts and thoughtful arrangements for this forum. Mr. Hang Zhao noted that the Indium&Bismuth&Germanium&Gallium Forum organized by Asian Metal has gone through 14 years since the forum was first held in 2008. It achieved important achievements in the fields of industry exchange, market forecast, product innovation, brand building as well as economic and trade cooperation, and has become an annual industry event. Coincidently, he himself has just been in the industry for 14 years, and witnessed the development process of the forum. At the same time, he was also very glad to get to know lots of industry colleagues who became friends through the forum. Looking back at the past year, the upstream raw material of germanium tightened, and the demand in some downstream fields surged, with a strong upward trend. Until Q2 this year, prices of germanium began to decline in fluctuation and hovered at the cost line currently; although the downstream demand for indium showed relatively sparse, indium prices also rose strongly driven by capital, and kept fluctuating at around RMB1,500/kg (USD219/kg); the bismuth market remained stable, and it still needed to continue to make efforts to break through the mark of RMB50,000/t (USD7,290/t); the gallium market sprang up driven by the heavy demand in the semiconductor field, and prices of gallium began to soar high at the beginning of the year, and slightly fluctuate at present, but lying still at a high level. In the future, under the background of the post-epidemic era, the non-ferrous industry is facing new opportunities and challenges. It is urgent for all brother companies to work together to maintain the good ecology of the industry, strengthen the cohesion of the industry, and forge ahead.

Then, Ms. Yan Liu, Deputy General Manager of Sales of Zhuzhou Keneng New Material Co., Ltd., delivered a wonderful speech on the theme of "Review and Prospect of Indium Market". Ms. Yan Liu expressed her views on basic situation, price trends, supply and consumption as well as later trends of indium products. Zhuzhou Keneng New Material Co., Ltd., established in January 2001 and located in Jinshan Science and Technology Industrial Park, Zhuzhou, Hunan, China, is mainly engaged in the R&D and production of indium, gallium, arsenic, bismuth, tellurium, tin and their various products. It is a national grade high-tech and key enterprise specializing in the production of minor (rare) metals that supplies compound semiconductors, ITO targets and key materials for electronic components in China, and owns a complete set of process and equipment design with the core independent research and development capacity, verified and recognized by first-class customers at home and abroad and achieving steady batch supply.

Later, not being present due to the epidemic, Mr. Feng Chen, Deputy General Manager of Beijing Jiya Semiconductor Material Co., Ltd., gave a speech on the theme of "Development of New Formats of Gallium Metal" in the form of online video. Mr. Feng Chen made a detailed introduction on main application fields of gallium metal, such as the applications in gallium arsenide, high-performance NdFeB, gallium nitride and liquid metal, and briefly explained the current main sources of gallium metal raw materials and the impact of alumina ore shortage on gallium metal supply. Founded in 1999, Beijing JiYa Semiconductor Material Co., Ltd. is one of the first companies in the world to adopt the most advanced hydrometallurgical technology to extract gallium in a large scale from Bayer spent liquid, and has an annual production of about 55 tons of 4N Gallium. JiYa supplies its products to clients from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and other countries and also has many clients across China.

After tea break, Mr. Zhigang Liu, General Manager of 5N Plus Shangyu Co., made a wonderful speech on "Green and Sustainable Development of Bismuth Supply Chain". Mr. Zhigang Liu elaborated on the upstream and downstream industrial chain of bismuth, and shared main indicators of green and sustainable development of bismuth ingot, green and sustainable development of middle and downstream of bismuth supply chain and other related content. 5N Plus is a world’s leading producer of high specialty metals and chemicals. 5N Plus is headquartered in Montreal with multiple facilities in NA, Europe and Asia. 5N Plus Shangyu is a subsidiary of 5N Plus Group in China and located in Hangzhou Bay Economy and Technology Development Park in Zhejiang Province. The business of the company is covering the manufacturing and sales of the products based on minor metals and especially specialized on Bi related products with the strong capability to produce or customize a complete portfolio of Bi-based products.

Afterwards, Mr. Chao Yang, Group Purchasing Director of HC SemiTek Corporation, who was unable to arrive at the site due to home quarantine under the severe local epidemic in Yiwu, Zhejiang, voiced his regrets and gave an online report on "Introduction of LED Industry and Demand for Gallium Metal-related Materials". Mr. Chao Yang introduced the global pan-semiconductor industry structure in detail, and said that upstream manufacturers were mostly concentrated in the United States, Japan and other places, downstream enterprises were all over the world, and midstream suppliers were the core of semiconductor manufacturers. Gallium plays an important role as a third-generation semiconductor material system (represented by gallium nitride). At the same time, he strongly urged that the rise of gallium metal prices would inevitably lead to violent fluctuations in the prices of gallium arsenide and Mo-source products, and unstable supply, which would bring challenges to the development and expansion of LED chip plants. Mr. Chao Yang called for stable upstream supply to help the development and take-off of the semiconductor industry! HC Semitek Corporation, established in 2005, is the world's leading supplier of LED chips and advanced semiconductor solutions. It entered the capital market in 2012 and integrated industrial upstream resources to acquire Crystaland in 2016. Headquartered in Wuhan, it now has three production bases: Zhangjiagang, Yiwu and Yuxi. In 2020, it officially entered the field of gallium nitride-based power electronic devices, mainly for mobile consumer electronic terminals, fast chargers, other power equipment, cloud computing big data server center, communication and automotive applications, and led the cutting-edge technology in the third generation semiconductor field.

After lunch, the forum continued at 14:00. First of all, Mr. Shicheng Huang, General Manager of Guangxi Crystal Union Photoelectric Materials Co., Ltd., expressed his views on "Status Quo and Development Trend of ITO Targets". Mr. Shicheng Huang briefly introduced the current corporate background of Guangxi Crystal Union, detailed the development status of ITO targets, especially the localization status and resource integration, and said that the current upstream and downstream cooperation promoted the rapid development of the industry and the national support was further increased. Mr. Shicheng Huang emphasized that there were still many uncertainties in the development of heterojunction cell as the star of the future. Guangxi Crystal Union Photoelectric Materials Co., Ltd. has been engaged in the development and application of indium tin oxide (ITO) targets for 13 years. Through taking the lead in breaking the technological monopoly, which realized the localization of ITO targets, and achieving the bulk supply of ITO targets by upgrading the liquid crystal panel production line from the 2.5th generation to the 10.5th generation, the company has become the leader in ITO localization.

Later, Mr. Xiaohua Huang, Chairman of the Board of Shaanxi Injay Semiconductor Co., Ltd. made an online speech on "New Materials Lead a Bright Future (Indium Phosphide)". He briefly introduced the advantages of indium phosphide compared with the traditional first-generation semiconductor silicon in performance and adaptability, as well as the material's commercial development history, supply chain status, and representatives of domestic and foreign manufacturers. Shaanxi Injay Semiconductor Co., Ltd. is a high-tech company dedicated to the R&D and industrialization of compound semiconductor materials. Focusing on the industrialization of the high-quality polycrystalline indium phosphide semiconductor material project, the project achieved a breakthrough of zero in the high-quality indium phosphide polycrystalline industrialization in China.

After tea break, due to the epidemic, Mr. Christian Hale, General Manager of IV IR Optics Company, was unable to come to China to participate in the conference, and communicated with the participants on "Current Status and Prospect of Germanium Market" in the form of video report. Mr. Christian Hale gave a brief introduction to the current situation of the company, and sorted out the characteristics of the germanium industry chain from the raw material end to the application end as well as current operation status of the germanium market. He noted that 90% of germanium was produced in China, and with the current sluggish demand, the price trend was becoming more stable, which would benefit the industry chain. "Stability" is the top priority in the infrared market. IV IR Optics is dedicated to manufacturing highest quality germanium and silicon material and precision components for infrared optics applications. Their advanced production and measuring technologies and equipment guarantee consistent and cost-effective processes and outstanding product quality. As a reliable and flexible partner, they help customers to increase their production efficiency with short lead times, support of Kanban principles and high precision blanks to save manufacturing cost.

Next, Mr. Hailong Bai, Director of Yunnan Tin Group (Holding) Company Limited R&D Center, made a keynote report on "Current Status and Future Forecast of High Purity Minor Metal application to Compound Semiconductors" to the participants. Mr. Hailong Bai communicated with the guests on the overview of high-purity semiconductor minor metals as well as current technology status, applications and market outlook forecasts of high-purity minor metals, and believed that the downstream application of compound semiconductors dominated by indium and gallium was in a period of explosive growth and the market scale kept expanding. Yunnan Tin Group (Holding) Company Limited (YTC) is a provincial key state-owned enterprise under the direct supervision of SASAC of the People's Government of Yunnan Province, and has the longest and most complete industrial chain among tin production enterprises in the world. Its reserves of tin and indium resources rank first in the world, of which the reserve of tin resources reaches 900,000 tons, accounting for 10% of global tin reserves; that of indium resources records 6,000 tons, accounting for 30% of the world's total. Yunnan Tin Group (Holding) Company Limited R&D Center, established in 2017, as a direct branch of YTC, independently developed high-purity indium, gallium and tin, indium dioxide, ITO powder and targets, preformed solder lug, fire retardant and so on.

Finally, Mr. Lin Chen, Marketing Director of Yunnan Chihong International Germanium Co., Ltd., delivered a final speech on "Development and New Application of Germanium Products". Mr. Lin Chen elaborated vividly on the current situation and difficulties of the current germanium market, industry chain analysis and application prospects. Yunnan Chihong Zn&Ge Co., Ltd., established in July 2000 and listed in 2004, is now affiliated to Chinalco Group, with a market value of nearly RMB26 billion (USD3.79 billion). The company is an international mining company focusing on the lead, zinc and germanium industry, comprehensively recovering rare and precious metals, and integrating geological exploration, mining, beneficiation, smelting, chemical industry, deep processing, trade and scientific research.

The report stage of the forum came to an end, followed by a gala dinner that everyone was looking forward to. At the beginning of the dinner, Mr. Xin Zhang from Yunnan Lincang Xinyuan Germanium Industry Co., Ltd., as the representative of the sponsor, gave the opening speech of the dinner. Mr. Xin Zhang said that although this forum went through many twists and turns, it was still full of friends, and they felt a great pleasure to gather together with experts and colleagues in the industry and expressed their warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to the leaders and colleagues who attended this reciprocal dinner organized by Yunnan Germanium and Asian Metal. Mr. Xin Zhang thanked Asian Metal, the organizer of the Indium&Bismuth&Germanium&Gallium Forum, for its hard work and service, who made great efforts for the successful convening of this forum. He also thanked all experts and colleagues for their participation and guidance. He hoped that after the conference, these brother enterprises present here could cooperate closely with each other, strengthen the cohesion of the industry, and make joint efforts for China's indium, bismuth, germanium and gallium industry to play a more important role in the global market in the future, ushering in a beautiful spring.