Inox Air to invest Rs 500 cr on chip fab gas purifying facilities

Inox Air Products aims to invest between Rs 300 and Rs 500 crore to build gas purifying facilities and a supply network for semiconductor production facilities in India. The company is the biggest generator of industrial gas in India. Inox Air Products Managing Director, Siddharth Jain, said that the money will be invested on a smaller scale this year and will be scaled up in the future in response to the demand created by semiconductor fabrication companies planning to establish manufacturing facilities in India.

Chip fabrication requires the use of fifty different, ultrapure gases. Only eight of these are accessible in India in raw form. Along with the infrastructure required to move and store all of the remaining 42 gases, imports are made. Investments will be required, according to Jain, as India attracts chipmakers like Micron to set up local chip assembly, testing, monitoring, and packaging (ATMP) units and fabrication facilities. Inox Air Products is examining alternatives in India with several chip manufacturing and ATMP operations.

Inox Air Products has started investing in the purification of raw gases that are currently available in India, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, helium, nitrous oxide, methane, silane, and ammonia. Ultra-high purity will be achieved by converting these gases.

Jain stated that if everything goes according to plan, the investment would be between Rs 300 crore and Rs 500 crore for the additional capital expenditure necessary. By the financial year 2024–2025 (FY25), Inox Air Products plans to establish 10 manufacturing sites, as part of a Rs 3,000 crore capital investment plan for this year. The first fabrication factory, according to Jain, would need to rely on imported gases. As the current levels do not warrant a greenfield investment in manufacturing these specialty gases, the company would continue to import infrastructure while focusing its initial investments on supply chain expansion.