Kurita’s Ultrapure Bet

TYO:6370

Kurita Water Industries started in 1949 selling chemicals for boiler water. Today one of its most important businesses sits inside semiconductor plants, where it supplies the ultrapure water used to rinse silicon wafers. Instead of only selling the equipment, Kurita often builds and owns the treatment plant on the customer’s site and charges for the water itself.

Company overview

Why chip fabs need ultrapure water

A semiconductor plant uses large volumes of water to clean wafers between process steps. Ordinary tap water, or even standard purified water, carries particles, ions, organic matter and dissolved gases that can leave defects on circuits measured in nanometres. Fabs therefore use ultrapure water, treated through filtration, reverse osmosis, ion exchange and other stages until impurities are almost undetectable.

Kurita’s own description of the business is direct: the quality of ultrapure water has a strong influence on product yield, so customers must be able to rely on a stable supply. If the water goes out of specification, a fab can lose wafers worth far more than the water itself.

Selling water, not just machines

How the supply contract works

In its ultrapure water supply service, Kurita builds and owns the water facilities inside the customer’s plant and runs them as a package that includes operation and maintenance. The basic contract period is 10 years, and the customer pays for the water it uses. Kurita presents this as an alternative to the traditional model of selling an ultrapure water system outright.

Why the model matters

• For the customer — the fab avoids a large upfront investment in water treatment and hands responsibility for quality to a specialist.
• For Kurita — revenue becomes recurring over the life of the contract instead of arriving once when equipment is delivered.
• For both — the operator that runs the plant every day builds detailed knowledge of each site, which makes renewals and expansions more likely.

Recent performance

For the fiscal year ended March 2025, Kurita reported net sales of about ¥408.9 billion, up 6.3%, although net profit fell because of impairment losses at US subsidiaries. In the year ended March 2026, net sales slipped to about ¥402.9 billion while business profit rose 12.7% to about ¥57.3 billion, and orders grew 7.3%.

The electronics market segment, which serves chipmakers and display producers, is the largest part of the group. In the nine months to December 2025 it recorded net sales of about ¥136.5 billion, slightly lower than a year earlier, as customers’ investment timing shifted. For the year ending March 2027, Kurita forecasts net sales of ¥425.0 billion and business profit of ¥61.5 billion.

Going where the fabs go

Semiconductor production is spreading beyond its traditional bases in East Asia, with new plants planned in the United States, Europe and India. Kurita has followed that shift. In India it formed a joint venture with Membrane Group India, Kurita Membrane India, to design, build and maintain water treatment and ultrapure water systems for the electronics sector. Its US arm also works with microelectronics customers on water reuse systems, an issue that grows as fabs face tighter limits on water use.

What it means for overseas partners

• Chipmakers and fab builders — Kurita offers both equipment and long-term supply contracts, which can shift water risk off a new plant’s balance sheet.
• Engineering and construction partners — new fabs outside Asia need local partners for construction, permitting and maintenance alongside Kurita’s process knowledge.
• Investors — watch the share of recurring service revenue, the timing of large fab orders, and progress outside Japan after the US impairments.

Conclusion

Ultrapure water is easy to overlook in the story of advanced chips, but no fab runs without it. Kurita has turned a 75-year-old water treatment business into a service that lives inside its customers’ plants. As chip production spreads to new countries, the company’s challenge is to repeat that model far from home.