{"id":367564,"date":"2026-03-31T13:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/367564\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:15:14","slug":"asias-chip-industry-faces-naphtha-squeeze-and-south-korea-feels-it-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/367564\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia\u2019s chip industry faces naphtha squeeze \u2013 and South Korea feels it the most"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korea has become a focal point of Asia\u2019s petrochemical crisis, a frontline economy suddenly forced to navigate the fallout from the Middle East turmoil<\/a> while scrambling for alternatives. Its semiconductor<\/a> and industrial sectors, already heavily dependent on imported naphtha, are now exposed to geopolitical shocks that are rippling across the region.South Korea<\/a> relies on imports for about 45 per cent of its naphtha demand. About 77 per cent of those come from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

On Monday, South Korea\u2019s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resource confirmed the import of 27,000 tonnes of Russian naphtha, the country\u2019s first such purchase since the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran in late February.<\/p>\n

The move, reported by Yonhap News Agency, was enabled by a temporary US sanctions waiver allowing Russian cargoes already in transit to complete sales and offloading between March 12 and April 11.<\/p>\n

\"SouthSouth Korea relies on imports for about 45 per cent of its naphtha demand. Photo: ShutterstockNaphtha is a vital petrochemical feedstock used in semiconductor manufacturing<\/a> to produce essential high-purity chemicals, solvents and plastics required for chip fabrication. Its derivatives \u2013 olefins and aromatics \u2013 are further processed into photoresists, cleaners and insulating materials used on wafers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea has become a focal point of Asia\u2019s petrochemical crisis, a frontline economy suddenly forced to navigate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[337,1631,114,1657,184,177110,85,177112,46,47,177108,177109,1593,3136,11471,114994,15624,177111,1594],"class_list":["post-367564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-asia","tag-asia-pacific","tag-business","tag-china","tag-economy","tag-icis","tag-il","tag-iran-us-israel-crisis","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-mordor-intelligence","tag-naphtha","tag-russia","tag-semiconductor-manufacturing","tag-south-korea","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-taiwan","tag-the-futurum-group","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}