News
Mitsui Mining & Smelting raises prices for MicroThin copper foil used in AI server substrates by 12%
Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 06:24 AM
Mitsui Mining & Smelting (Mitsui Kinzoku) has announced a price increase of 12% for its 'MicroThin' ultra-thin copper foil products, which are widely used in the manufacturing of substrates for AI servers.
Context
On March 12, 2026, Japanese nonferrous metals leader Mitsui Kinzoku announced a 12% price hike for its MicroThin ultra-thin copper foil, a critical component used in AI server substrates and high-end memory packages. This pricing adjustment follows a period of record-breaking financial performance for the company, which recently revised its FY2025 forecasts upward to anticipate record net sales of 750 billion yen and operating income of 117 billion yen. The company cited strong demand for high-grade materials like VSP and MicroThin in data center infrastructure as a primary driver of this growth.
This move reflects the increasing pricing power of upstream materials providers within the AI supply chain. As AI servers require more complex, multilayered PCBs and high-speed memory like DRAM and DDR5, the demand for high-tensile, low-roughness copper foil has surged. Mitsui Kinzoku currently maintains a dominant 60% market share in the high-grade HVLP copper foil segment, positioning it to pass on costs as global demand for AI-specific infrastructure continues to scale through 2030.
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