Mitsui Kinzoku to build new Malaysia copper foil plant, eyes AI-driven demand growth
2026-08-18 11:14:04 [Print]
Japanese metals producer Mitsui Kinzoku announced on Monday that it will expand production capacity for its high-performance copper foil products beyond 2030, with a new plant in Malaysia aimed at capturing surging demand from the artificial intelligence and semiconductor industries.
The new facility will be built on adjacent land to the company's existing Malaysian plant, which it plans to acquire. Operations are expected to commence in 2031, with an initial monthly production capacity of 1,200 metric tons of VSP copper foil and 4 million square metres of MicroThin copper foil.
VSP copper foil, which is used in high-frequency circuit boards for servers, routers, and switches, has seen a notable uptick in demand as AI infrastructure projects increasingly adopt higher-grade materials.
Meanwhile, MicroThin copper foil-employed in semiconductor package substrates, optical modules, and smartphone motherboards-is also poised to benefit from rising demand for AI servers, data centres, and memory applications, the company noted.
Looking ahead, Mitsui Kinzoku expects the expansion to boost its total monthly production capacity to 2,600 tons of VSP foil and 12 million square metres of MicroThin foil by fiscal 2033.
The new facility will be built on adjacent land to the company's existing Malaysian plant, which it plans to acquire. Operations are expected to commence in 2031, with an initial monthly production capacity of 1,200 metric tons of VSP copper foil and 4 million square metres of MicroThin copper foil.
VSP copper foil, which is used in high-frequency circuit boards for servers, routers, and switches, has seen a notable uptick in demand as AI infrastructure projects increasingly adopt higher-grade materials.
Meanwhile, MicroThin copper foil-employed in semiconductor package substrates, optical modules, and smartphone motherboards-is also poised to benefit from rising demand for AI servers, data centres, and memory applications, the company noted.
Looking ahead, Mitsui Kinzoku expects the expansion to boost its total monthly production capacity to 2,600 tons of VSP foil and 12 million square metres of MicroThin foil by fiscal 2033.
Copper Conc. 20%min Delivered China
Unit:RMB/mmt
China refined copper producers' output statistics by province by month
Unit: mt
