Shin-Etsu Chem

From sand to chip: how is a modern semiconductor made?

Reading time: approx. 10min

1) INTRODUCTION

Since 2023 at the latest and the rapid rise of Nvidia $NVDA (+2,01 %) semiconductors and "AI chips" in particular have been the talk of the town. Since then, investors have been chasing after almost every company that has something to do with the manufacture of chips, driving share prices to unimagined heights. However, hardly any investors really know how complex the value chain is within the production of modern chips.

In this article, I will give you an overview of the entire manufacturing process and the companies involved. Even if many of you have a vague idea that the production of modern chips is complex, you will certainly be surprised by how complex it really is in reality.

2) BASIC

The starting point for every chip are so-called wafers [1] - i.e. thin wafers, which usually consist of so-called high-purity monocrystalline silicon. In the field of power semiconductors, which primarily comprises chips for applications with higher currents and voltages, silicon carbide (SiC) or galium nitride (GaN) has recently also been used as the base material for the wafers.

In the so-called front end the actual core components of the chips - the so-called dies - are created and applied to the wafers. The dies are rectangular structures that contain the actual functionality of the later chip. The finished dies are then tested for their functionality and electrical properties. Each die that is found to be good is then integrated into the so-called backend where the individual dies are separated on the wafer. This is followed by the so-called packaging. The individual dies from the front end are then electrically contacted and integrated into a protective housing. In the end, this housing with the contacted die is what is usually called a chip chip.

Now that we have a rough overview of the overall process, let's take a closer look at the individual processes involved in producing the dies on the wafer. This is the area in which most highly complex machines are used and which is usually the most sensitive.

3) FROM SAND TO WAFER

Before wafers made of high-purity silicon can even be produced and the actual process for manufacturing dies can begin, the actual wafer must first be manufactured in almost perfect quality. To do this, quartz sand, which consists largely of silicon dioxide, is reduced with carbon at high temperatures. This produces so-called raw siliconwhich, with a purity of around 96%, is not yet anywhere near the quality required for the production of wafers.

In several chemical processes, which are carried out by Wacker Chemie
$WCH (+1,9 %) or Siltronic
$WAF (-3,21 %) are used to turn the "impure" silicon into so-called polycrystalline silicon with a purity of 99.9999999%. For every billion silicon atoms, there is then only one foreign atom in the silicon. However, this pure polycrystalline silicon is still not suitable for the production of wafers, as the crystal structure in the silicon is not uniform enough. In order to create the right crystal structure, the polycrystalline silicon is then melted again and a so-called ingotwhich is made from monocrystalline silicon is produced. A comparison between raw silicon and the ingot can be found in the following image [3]:

This ingot is then sawn into thin slices, which are then the final wafers for semiconductor production. The best-known wafer producers are Shin Etsu
$4063, (-1,14 %)
Siltronic or GlobalWafers
$6488.

4) FROM THE WAFER TO THE DIE

The wafers described in the previous section can now be used to produce dies. The overall process for producing dies basically consists of applying a large number of layers using various chemical, mechanical and physical processes. The overall process (depending on the product) takes approx. 80 different layers on the wafer, requiring almost 1000 different process steps and 3 months
non-stop production are required [4].

A macroscopic analogy is useful here, which I have also taken from [4]. You can compare the overall process for producing dies with baking a large multi-layer cake. This cake has 80 layers and the recipe for baking consists of 1000 steps. It takes 3 months to make the cake and if even one layer of the cake deviates from the recipe by more than 1%, the whole cake collapses and has to be thrown away.

In the first process steps, the wafer is covered with billions tiny little transistors are created on the wafer, which are then all individually electrically contacted in the following steps. The final steps consist of electrically connecting the transistors to each other, resulting in a complete electrical circuit [4]:

Each individual layer of the approximately 80 layers in the die requires highly specialized processes, which can be roughly summarized as:

• Applying masks: Photolithography, photoresist coating (applying photoresist)
• Apply material: Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD), Atomic Layer Deposition
• Remove material: Plasma annealing, Wet annealing, Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP)
• Modify material: Ion Implanting, Annealing
• Material cleaning
• Inspecting the layers: Optical, Microscopical, Focused Ion Beam, Defect Inspection

Apply masks

Ultimately, a mask can be thought of as an enlarged copy of the structure of a special layer in the die. These so-called photomasks are then scanned using so-called scanners or steppers "copied" in reduced size onto the wafer. The best-known manufacturer of such lithography systems is ASML
$ASML (-1,59 %). It is currently the only producer of lithography systems that make it possible to produce structures smaller than 10 nanometers on the wafer. In today's powerful and modern chips, such as those found in smartphones, AI chips and processors, the smallest structures are around 3 nanometers in size. Other manufacturers of lithography systems for larger structures (10nm and larger) are Canon Electronics
$7739 or Nikon $7731 (+1,29 %) .

The photomasks - i.e. the enlarged "copies" of the structures - are produced by companies such as Toppan $7911 (-7,06 %) , Dai Nippon Printing
$7912 (-1,09 %) or Hoya $7741 (-3,54 %) manufactured. Systems for cleaning the photomasks or for applying the photoresist are produced, for example, by Suss Microtec
$SMHN (+0,76 %) for example.

Apply/remove/modify/clean material

As can be seen in the overview above, there are a variety of methods and processes for modifying the material of a particular layer. As a result, there is a lot of different equipment that can handle a process very well with incredible specialization. The best-known and most successful equipment manufacturers include Applied Materials $AMAT (+0,53 %), LAM Research
$LRCX (+0,38 %), Tokyo Electron (TEL)
$8035, (-0,76 %)
Suss Mictrotec, Entegris
$ENTG (-0,55 %) and Axcelis $ACLS (-0,8 %).

The material - for example, highly specialized chemicals - is of course also required for production. Companies such as Linde
$LIN (+0,54 %), Air Liquide
$AI (-0,22 %), Air Products
$APD (+0,04 %) and Nippon Sanso
$4091 (+0,26 %) are major manufacturers of process gases such as nitrogen, hydrogen and argon.

Inspect

As mentioned, every single layer in the manufacturing process of a die must be perfect in order to obtain a functional die at the end. Any small deviation or foreign particles can impair the functionality of the die. As the function of the die can only be checked precisely on the finished die, it is advantageous to inspect the individual layers for defects and deviations during production. Special machines are required for this, which must be able to do different things depending on the layer. Manufacturers of such machines include KLA
$KLAC (+0,46 %) or Onto Innovation
$ONTO (-0,62 %).

The following applies to almost all of the companies mentioned in this section: the companies are highly specialized and have quasi-monopolies on the machines for certain process steps. quasi-monopolies. Suitable equipment therefore usually costs several million dollars. In addition, some of the systems are so complex that they can only be serviced by the manufacturer's own service staff, which results in recurring service revenues for every machine sold. As a rule, each machine requires several highly specialized engineers to ensure long-term stable operation.

5) FROM THE DIE TO THE FINISHED CHIP

Once the wafer has been processed, the dies on the wafer are checked for functionality. There is highly specialized equipment for this, so-called probers. These probers test each individual chip several times, if necessary, to check the functionality implemented in the design. Manufacturers of such probers include Teradyne $TER (-0,02 %), Keysight Technologies
$KEYS (+1,5 %), Onto Innovation or Tokyo Electron. These probers have to control each individual die, some of which are only a few square millimetres in size, and contact the corresponding much smaller test structures with tiny needles. The testing process is sometimes outsourced to entire companies that offer die testing as a complete package. One example of such providers is Amkor Technology
$AMKR (-0,58 %).

The processed and tested wafer is now sawn to obtain individual dies. The dies that are found to be good are then integrated into a protective housing in the backend. The dies that have not passed the functionality test are either sorted out or (depending on the error pattern) processed as a variant with reduced functionality similar to those with full functionality. After a final functional test in the package, the chip is ready for use.

6) FOUNDRIES, FABLESS & SOFTWARE

Now that we have an overview of the complex process of manufacturing a chip, let's zoom out a little further to understand which companies perform which tasks in the semiconductor industry.

It's funny that not once in the manufacturing process has the name Nvidia $NVDA (+2,01 %) or Apple $AAPL (+1,34 %) has been mentioned? Yet they have the most advanced chips, don't they?

The pure production of the chips is done by other companies - so-called foundries. Companies like Nvidia and even AMD $AMD (-0,35 %) are in fact fablessThis means that they do not have their own production facilities but only supply the chip design and let the foundries manufacture the actual chip according to their design.

The design of a chip is like the blueprint for production - the foundries then take over the recipe creation and the actual production. There is special software for designing chips. Companies known for this software include Cadance Design
$CDNS (+0,16 %) and Synopsys $SNPS (-1,06 %). But also the industrial giant Siemens
$SIE (-0,29 %) now also supplies software for designing integrated circuits. Synopsys also offers other software for data analysis within foundry production.

Speaking of foundries; the best known foundry is probably TSMC
$TSM, (+0,43 %) which is the global market leader in foundries. TSMC designs itself no chips itself and specializes exclusively in the production of the most advanced generations of chips. Another major player that also masters the most advanced structure sizes is Samsung $005930. In contrast to TSMC manufactures Samsung also produces its own designs. Other large foundries are Global Foundries
$GFS, (+0,33 %) which was originally a spin-off from AMD and the Taiwanese company United Micro Electronics
$UMC. (-0,79 %)

The best-known fabless companies - i.e. companies without their own chip production - are Nvidia, Apple, AMD, ARM Holdings
$ARM, (-2,66 %)
Broadcom $AVGO (+0,31 %), MediaTek $2454 and Qualcomm $QCOM. (+2,48 %) In the meantime Alphabet $GOOGL, (+0,94 %)
Microsoft $MSFT, (-1,05 %)
Amazon $AMZN (+0,26 %) and Meta $META (-2,23 %) have designed their own chips for certain functionalities and then have them manufactured in foundries.

In addition to foundries and fabless companies, there are of course also hybrid models, i.e. companies that take on both production and design. The best-known examples of this are, of course, companies such as Intel
$INTC (+1,8 %) and Samsung. There is also a whole range of so-called Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM)which for the most part only manufacture their own designed chips and do not accept customer orders for production. Well-known companies such as Texas Instruments
$TXN, (-0,01 %)
SK Hynix
$000660,
STMicroelectronics
$STMPA, (-0,02 %)
NXP Semiconductors
$NXPI, (+0,87 %)
Infineon $IFX (-1,35 %) and Renesas $6723 (+2,12 %) are among the IDMs.

FINAL WORD

The aim of this article was to provide an overview of the complexity of the semiconductor industry. I do not, of course no claim to be complete, as there are of course many other companies that are part of this value chain. As Getquin thrives on active exchange, I'll give you some food for thought to discuss in the comments below the article:

• feel free to link any other companies in the comments if you think I've forgotten any relevant ones
• what was the most surprising new information for you from the article?
• which companies from the article have you never heard of?
• before reading the article, did you know approximately how a modern chip is produced and what steps are necessary for this?

In general, I can recommend the 20-minute YouTube video at [4] to any interested reader. It provides an excellent animated overview of the manufacturing process of modern chips.

Stay tuned,

Yours Nico Uhlig (aka RealMichaelScott)

SOURCES:

[1] Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafer

[2] https://www.halbleiter.org/waferherstellung/einkristall/

[3] https://solarmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/solarmuseum_org-07917.jpg

[4] Branch Education on YouTube: "How are Microchips Made?" https://youtu.be/dX9CGRZwD-w?si=xeV0TYgJ2iwNOKyO

Hello everyone,

Today I would like to introduce you to my portfolio. As you probably know, it's just too much fun to expand my portfolio with new stocks. There are now a few too many, but I still can't really part with my worst-performing stocks ($NVM (-3,2 %) , $ENPH (+6,64 %) , $WAC (-0,93 %) ). I'm hoping that I'll be able to sell them in positive territory at some point, or am I on the wrong track and in your opinion should I sell at a loss and try to make up the loss with other stocks?

I have been investing since the end of 2022 and at 29 years old, I still have a long time to go. My strategy is to be as desertified as possible in sectors and to beat the market in the long term (just let me believe that it works :D), hence so many individual stocks. I want to hold these for many years (esp. $AMZN (+0,26 %) , $GOOGL (+0,94 %) , $QCOM (+2,48 %) , $MSFT (-1,05 %) , $V (-0,14 %) , $MC (-0,25 %) , $SALM (-0,11 %) ) but I'm also not too keen to pocket the profits. Are there any stocks in my portfolio that you would view critically for the next few years and would be worth considering selling? Recession and all that...

Priority is on growth, which is reasonably safe, so only a few small caps - but a few bets have to be in there :) ($AIDX (-2,2 %) , $NRX (-0,62 %) , $ITM (+2,92 %) , $F3C (-0,91 %) , $MITK (+2,05 %) ). But with rather small amounts, probably too small or what do you say?

At the same time, I would also like to claim a €900 allowance via dividends ( $BATS (-0,24 %) , $ENB (+0,76 %) , $BNPQY , $STLAM (-0,17 %) , $ENGI (+0,22 %) , $RIO (-0,93 %) ) and secure a trade or two.

Recently I have been investing 240€/m in the $XDWD (+0,24 %) and between 200 - 500€/m in individual shares (depending on what is left). Actually, I want to increase the existing shares properly now, but somehow there are always nice entry options in solid companies like $0L2T (-2,42 %) , $ZTS (+0,52 %) , $ADM (+1,28 %) , $PANW (-2,12 %) , $ENR (+2,08 %) . Help what to do? :D

And then there's also crypto $BTC (-2,42 %)
$NEAR (-1,26 %)
$ADA (-2,97 %)

And Japan, they're doing well too $4063 (-1,14 %) , $6501 (-2,62 %) , $8001 (-0,17 %)

Looking forward to your feedback and advice!

++Linde and other industrial gas producers in comparison++

1. business model of $LIN (+0,54 %)
1]

Linde PLC is an industrial gases and engineering company. The company's business consists of two core product lines: Industrial Gases and Engineering. The main products of the industrial gases business are atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, argon and noble gases, and process gases such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases and acetylene.

The company designs, engineers and builds industrial gas production plants and provides customers with a range of gas production and processing services, such as olefin plants, natural gas plants, air separation plants, hydrogen and synthesis gas plants and other types of plants.

Employee Satisfaction: [2]

Average rating:

According to the review portal kunuu, workers are satisfied with their employer on average. The company scores a 3.4 out of 5, and has a 50% recommendation rate. The biggest problem of the German workers stands out more clearly: the aggressive company culture. Many layoffs and poor chances of being hired.

Salary:

The majority of workers are happy with salaries at Linde. And rightly so. Rich starting salaries attract qualified employees to the company. Key positions at the company would include:

Engineer: 80,500€ / Buyer: 85,300€ / Project Manager: 97,900€.

General:

It should be noted that I underestimated Linde quite a bit. I was aware that Linde is a big player in the gas business, but the fact that Linde is the world market leader in industrial gases [3], besides AirLiquid, surprised me quite a bit. The chart alone in comparison to Airproducts and Shin-Etsu is a real treat... (picture is attached/ By the way, I would appreciate it if you could finally insert pictures between text, this would help the reading flow significantly)

Is Linde "too big to fail"?

Modern industrial gases are one of the components that make up the engine of modern industry. Without industrial gases, many "normal" products such as plastics or fertilizers would no longer be able to be manufactured. Industrial gases are accordingly indispensable! For example, without chlorine and ethylene, plastic could no longer be produced, or without nitrogen and ammonia, ammonia could no longer be produced. It is also interesting to note that without argon and helium, the semiconductor industry would no longer be able to produce (all products of Linde).

Prospects for industrial gases: [4]

Political and societal pressures, at least here in Germany, are increasing demand for alternatives to conventional oil, benefiting low-CO2 technologies such as hydrogen. In addition, more efficient mechanisms are being invented to improve the efficiency of industrial gases. Whether hydrogen propulsion will become widely accepted as a replacement for the internal combustion engine is questionable - industrial gases already seem to be more attractive for large means of transportation such as trucks or even airplanes. As already mentioned above, industrial gases are indispensable for chemical/medical and some technological industries.

2. key figures in comparison (Linde(DE) vs. Airproducts(USA) $APD (+0,04 %)
vs. Shin-Etsu $4063 (-1,14 %)
(JPN)) [5]

a. Sales and profit growth (EBIT)

Sales growth over the last 5 years:

Linde: 23.88% / Airproducts 9.17% / Shin-Etsu 3.18%

EBIT growth over the last 5 years:

Linde:

- 2018-2019: (-42%)

- 2019-2020: (15,61%)

- 2020-2021: (50,68%)

- 2021-2022: (8,71%)

- Average growth rate: 6.6%

Airproducts:

- 2018-2019: (13,62%)

- 2019-2020: (5,87%)

- 2020-2021: (3,45%)

- 2021-2022: (9,86%)

- Average growth rate: 6.56%

Shin-Etsu:

- 2018-2019: (22,4%)

- 2019-2020: (2,58%)

- 2020-2021: (-5,6%)

- 2021-2022: (73,11%)

- Average growth rate: 18.5%

Average 5-year EBIT growth trend:

Linde: 6.6% / Airproducts: 6.56%/ Shin-Etsu 18.5%.

b. All about the dividend

When it comes to dividends, my focus is on sustainable growth. I avoid companies that already have too high a payout ratio, or which barely increases the dividend. Interesting ratios for this are:

- Current dividend yield

- Dividend continuity

- Dividend growth

- Payout ratio

Linde:

- Current dividend yield: 1.30%

- Dividend continuity: 30 years

- Dividend growth: (5 years: 8.27%); (10 years: 7.84%)

- Payout ratio: approx. 60%

Airproducts:

- Current dividend yield: 2.2%

- Dividend continuity: 35 years

- Dividend growth: (5 years: 11%); (10 years: 9.5%)

- Payout ratio: approx. 60%

Shin-Etsu:

- Current dividend yield: 2.13%

- Dividend continuity: 25 years

- Dividend growth: (5 years: 10%); (10 years: 9%)

- Payout ratio: approx. 55

c. Low debt

In order for a company to be flexible even in high-interest phases, it should have low debt. I personally equate a high equity ratio with security.

Equity ratio:

Linde: 50.25%

Airproducts: 48.34

Shin-Etsu: 82.4%

3. outlook

I expect my investment to grow steadily in the future and to pay me a nice dividend. Admittedly, none of the companies offers a high dividend yield, and to be honest, I don't have a clear favorite among the three stocks. Linde and Airproducts are the bigger companies, but they have already had their big growth spurts. Shin-Etsu is a small but interesting company, but can it really compete with the big top dogs. According to the current market distribution, Airproducts and Linde are ahead - Linde even a bit more. However, Linde has already done very very well, and has almost three times the market capitalization of Air Products. I will decide in the coming weeks whether to bet on Linde or Air Products, and then open a position for my dividend portfolio.

I will publish the purchase again in GQ.

Final question: Which stock would you buy?

By the way, the outline of this post is inspired by the post of @RealMichaelScott (How to analyze a dividend stock). And on the topic of hydrogen I was inspired by the post of @Hannes_SK (Bye-Bye $PLUG (+9,5 %) )

Sources:

[1]: https://de.marketscreener.com/kurs/aktie/LINDE-PLC-46923083/unternehmen/

[2]: Linde Erfahrungen: 711 Bewertungen von Mitarbeitern | kununu

[3]: Industriegase: Marktanteile größter Hersteller weltweit 2018 | Statista

[4]: Industriegase: Hersteller, Produktion und Anwendungen - Gasido.de

[5]: TraderFoxx; marketscreener; finanzen.net

#wasserstoff
#linde
#zukunft
#stockanalysis
#etfs
#aktien
#dividenden
#dividendencheck
#dividendenaktie
#geldanlage

How penguins revolutionized our modern agriculture.

Hello dear community,

Thank you for the great feedback on my last post. I hope your oven survived the practical tests well.

For those who want to show their oven new horizons, go here to the mentioned post:

https://getqu.in/2A360BDV8GYN/n12zGfGeeF/

Once again as food for thought, as I myself will run out of topics in a few weeks.

What topics from the industrial, energy or chemical sectors do you perhaps scrutinize more often than investors?

Enclosed is my heartfelt comment on the topic of "ammonia". I hope you like it.

Why ammonia is the better alternative to "green" hydrogen.

1. meaning and history:

Ammonia is one of the most widely produced chemicals in the world. "Bread from air" was the name researchers Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch gave to their process, which still moves the world today - ammonia synthesis.

During the competition for fertilizers in the Industrial Revolution, it was ultimately again the competition between the major European powers where the land of the "poets and thinkers" opened up a revolution.

Based on research by the biologist Justus von Liebig, nitrogenous fertilizers experienced an incredible boom in demand. Today, this can be compared more with the semiconductor industry.

Natural deposits of such fertilizers were limited. The potential here lay in Chile saltpetre and guano (a mixture of excrement from sea birds, such as penguins on limestone).

So while nowadays people tend to look for dependencies, almost 100 years ago they wanted to limit dependencies.

Ostwald took the first steps and achieved success with synthetic fertilizers with his Ostwald process. Today, however, this process is used more for the production of nitric acid.

Birkeland, a Norwegian, with the support of industrialist Sam Eyde, developed a process for producing nitric acid using an electric arc. However, this was drastically inefficient.

Now let's get to the real issue:

The Germans' drive for self-sufficiency was unbroken. The chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch thus developed a large-scale synthesis based on nitrogen, which makes up almost 80% of the air, and hydrogen. BASF showed great economic interest in this $BAS (-0,12 %) . This not only led to a cooperation. In 1913, the first industrial-scale plant for the production of ammonia was built in Ludwigshafen, with a capacity of 30 t/day, which was enormous at the time.

Due to the First World War and the resulting capacity for explosives, further plants were built in Bitterfeld and Leuna. Incidentally, this construction still represents the basis for the significant chemical industry in Saxony-Anhalt today.

2. "Bread from air" - the process in color.

Conventional production (gray):

To produce ammonia NH3 you need nitrogen N2 and hydrogen H2. Nitrogen can be easily obtained by air injection. Hydrogen was obtained by chlorine-alkali electrolysis. Nowadays, however, hydrogen is primarily produced from natural gas by steam reforming.

After a relatively simple process, you end up with a really nasty, pungent-smelling liquid.

"Green" production:

The "green" production of ammonia differs only slightly from the conventional process.

Since nitrogen is already taken from the air and therefore does not generate any greenhouse gases, CO2 savings are only possible in the production of hydrogen H2.

In this case, hydrogen must be fed directly from water by means of electrolysis. At least this would be the most efficient way, since no further change of state of hydrogen has to be taken into account.

Thus, the process only changes in the production of the raw material "hydrogen". The rest of the synthesis is also carried out here according to the Haber-Bosch process.

3. use - Why is ammonia actually so important for private use?

Ammonia is an important chemical raw material for just about all branches of industry. Already in private use we find it for example in:

- our refrigerator (refrigerant)

- our clothing (dye)

- diesel vehicles for exhaust gas treatment (Adblue as urea solution)

- proteins in the body and in the urea cycle as a degradation product of an endogenous "overdose

4. what does this mean in terms of possible profiteers with regard to an investment?

Of course, we have to ask ourselves the question behind the how, what and why. In general, ammonia can now be counted as part of the energy storage segment, but it receives much less attention in this regard than hydrogen.

The world's largest publicly traded manufacturers are Yara $YAR (-0,08 %) and CF Industries $CF (+0,78 %) Yara, which also produces ammonia itself, but belongs more to the chemicals trade, like Brenntag, as an industry. $BNR (+0,14 %) as an industry. Therefore one is also more crisis-proof in recessionary times. Chemical distributors can issue containers of any size and purchase large batches, thus retaining the difference as a margin. This tends to make customers more willing to buy smaller containers in times of economic uncertainty, thus reducing inventories in the event of a production outage due to lack of demand.

CF Industries, on the other hand, is a "real" producer and has been aiming to produce "green" ammonia since this year.

The tendency now, in terms of advanced processes, is not to feed air because of the better efficiency, but pure nitrogen. In parallel, of course, hydrogen. The manufacturers can usually demonstrate the relevant process expertise themselves, so that dependence on hydrogen suppliers can actually be ruled out. One exception is Linde's engineering division. $LIN represents an exception. They have knowledge of entire hydrogen and ammonia plants. Incidentally, this would also be a further reason against the "small" hype stocks, such as Nel $NEL (-0,43 %) or Plug $PLUG (+9,5 %) from the hydrogen segment and why they are unlikely to catch on. After all, ammonia would be a gigantic consumer for this industry. Nevertheless, ammonia producers are funny low valued on the stock market. P/E ratios average 5. Whereas some shares of the largest hydrogen ETF are valued $HTWO (+1,97 %) are valued at >20, if they can show any profits at all.

One example:

CF-Industries is valued at around €14 billion. Plug Power is still valued at just under €7 billion. That is half. While Plug has been burning money for years and is not even making billions in sales, CF is extremely profitable.

Both are superior in the "clean" energy segment. Yet CF is expected to see its business decline in the coming years. That is inexplicable and illogical, and it certainly won't happen that way.

But where are the growth potentials?

This is really extremely difficult to assess in this area, as the market is largely saturated and divided up.

In general, however, one should really emphasize BASF. Although the closure of ammonia production at the Ludwigshafen site is attributable to the high production costs in Europe, the entire value chain of products in the ammonia sector is largely retained.

In the following, I would now like to take a closer look at some products which, in my opinion, have a high growth potential and are based on ammonia. Due to the growth potential of the following, the ammonia production of the manufacturers should also be stable in the future and gain in importance naturally.

Urea:

Contrary to popular belief, urea is not merely ammonia or a solution of it. It is a chemical compound in its own right and a by-product of ammonia.

With a market share of 46%, urea is the nitrogenous fertilizer par excellence. The trend, of course, is for it to continue to grow as the global population continues to rise. Furthermore, many raw materials of the future will be plant-based. So of course there is considerable growth potential here, too, and a secure, crisis-proof market. People always eat!

3 exemplary representatives: Yara $YAR (-0,08 %) , CF Industries $CF (+0,78 %) , Finished Lobe $FERTIGLB

Nitric Acid:

Nitric acid is probably the best known nitrogenous acid. In high concentrations, however, it is extremely dangerous, since nitrous gases escape, which are toxic and corrosive. It is needed as a base material for explosives such as TNT or nitroglycerine and is therefore essential for the mining sector. Also here Yara can be found again. And no, this is not intended as an advertisement. But they have the majority of the ammoniacal and nitrous production in their own hands and appreciate lucrative business very much.

Off-market sizes in this context are, for example, still SKW Piesteritz GmbH or Staub & Co. and many other medium-sized companies.

Aniline:

Although aniline is only produced in the final stage with ammonia in modern processes, it is still a steady market with growth. Earlier processes involved a complete reaction chain with ammonia. Aniline is a basic material for the production of paints, medicines and artificial rubber, as well as fibers aka synthetic fibers. As a substance, aniline is also the eponym of the largest chemical company BASF $BAS (-0,12 %) which is derived from the original name of the Badic Aniline- and Soda-Fabrik originates.

In addition, however, DuPont $DD (-0,03 %) , Shin-Etsu $4063 (-1,14 %) or Eastman $EMN (+1,29 %) offer many aniline-based products.

6. ammonia as the fuel of the future?:

The purpose behind my contributions is, of course, to communicate energy sources of the future and to focus on diversification.

Solution as fuel alternative:

Since ammonia consists of 75% hydrogen and 25% nitrogen, it is easy to split again with the help of a so-called ammonia cracker. This means that hydrogen can be used to generate energy in a fuel cell, for example, and its efficiency is many times higher than that of hydrogen. Nevertheless, it lags far behind the battery vehicle.

Nevertheless, well-known companies, especially from the heavy-duty transport sector, have come forward to consider ammonia as a solution for the future.

The German Railways wants to convert some of its freight trains to ammonia in order to minimize its diesel fleet.

Also the VW subsidiary $VOW (+1,96 %) , MAN, is working on ammonia-based marine engines.

John Deere $DE (+0,19 %) is also working on such engines for medium-heavy tractors.

7. ammonia as energy storage and what advantages does it have now?

The main focus here is the fact that hydrogen is needed to produce ammonia, but would have to be liquefied in an energy-intensive way for transport.

A brief review: Hydrogen must be cooled to about -250 degrees Celsius for this and compressed to 700 bar.

Ammonia, on the other hand, can be liquefied at 20 degrees Celsius, i.e. room temperature, and at about 8 bar.

The energy input is therefore dramatically lower. In addition, the energy density of ammonia (~3.3 kWh/l) is higher, since hydrogen (~2.2 kWh/l liquid) is chemically bound as an energy carrier in this process, thereby reducing the volume of hydrogen.

Corresponding parameters are taken from the "Formelsammlung" of the Duden publishing house.

In addition to the advantage I described above, that the compression cost of ammonia is much lower than that of hydrogen, there is the fact that ammonia can also be easily stored chemically and stored much more advantageously. For example, ammonia can be converted into a salt, making it very easy to store and transport as a solid. At about 60 degrees Celsius, the given salts decompose and release ammonia.

But even without conversion, ammonia can already be used as a gas, since the infrastructure of the natural gas network would be designed for ammonia. It can be transported by ship, by pipeline, but also in ordinary gas cylinders or gas cartridges.

This is because the structure of ammonia is coarser and larger than that of hydrogen.

What is the general disadvantage of ammonia?

The main disadvantages are the acute health and environmental hazards posed by the substance. In the event of leakage, there would be lasting environmental damage to animals, nature and humans.

Ammonia has only a quarter of the energy of gasoline and only half of that of diesel. Accordingly, it would take twice as much as fossil fuels.

Incomplete combustion, which is also quite common in engines, produces the narcotic and extreme greenhouse gas "laughing gas". Engines must therefore burn extremely efficiently and carefully.

Postscript:

I hope you enjoyed this article.

The next article will look at the chemical processing of lithium. The CO2 balance is interesting, but the focus will be on the fact that the stock market completely misjudges the value chains and the valuations distort the real economic picture.

Opinion on Shin-Etsu as a long-term investment? In my opinion, great potential for growth in the next 10 years.

have exam phase so analysis can take time