SK Geocentric Co., a chemical unit of South Korea's SK Group, said Monday the construction began for the joint factory with Japan's Tokuyama Corp. to produce a high-purity cleaning agent for semiconductors.

SK Geocentric CEO Na Kyung-soo, Hiroshi Yokota, president of Tokuyama, and other officials attended the groundbreaking ceremony that took place in the South Korean industrial city of Ulsan, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where SK runs its key chemical manufacturing complex, SK Geocentric said.

SK Geocentric and Tokuyama formed a 50:50 joint venture in December last year to produce and sell high purity Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA), a solvent widely used as an agent for cleaning and dehydrating in the semiconductor and liquid crystal display manufacturing process.

They said they would invest 120 billion won ($92 million) for the joint Ulsan plant to annually produce about 30,000 tons of IPA. Pilot operations will start in 2023 before commercialization planned for 2024.

Under the joint venture deal, SK Geocentric will be in charge of raw material supply, process operation and marketing, while Tokuyama will provide relation production technologies. (Yonhap)