Mitsui Kinzoku Plans to Raise Malaysia Copper Foil Capacity to 2,600 Tons a Month
Key Facts
Mitsui Kinzoku announced on August 17, 2026, a plan to build a new production site near its plant in Malaysia to increase output of its specialized VSP and MicroThin copper foils, according to a company statement. The company plans to acquire land for the site and begin construction in 2031, adding monthly capacity of 1,200 tons of VSP and 4 million square meters of MicroThin. The additions would lift targeted total monthly capacity to 2,600 tons of VSP and 12 million square meters of MicroThin. The announcement did not specify the site’s cost or the amount of capital investment. The company said the plan responds to its expectations for rapid, sustained growth in the AI and semiconductor markets, alongside rising demand for the two products in specific applications.
The announced targets show the scale of the planned expansion across both products: the new Malaysian site will add 1,200 tons of VSP a month and 4 million square meters of MicroThin a month. Once the additions are complete, the company is targeting total capacity of 2,600 tons of VSP and 12 million square meters of MicroThin a month. These figures place the expansion within a production plan starting in 2031, rather than an announcement of immediate output or an earlier start of operations at the site. The company linked the expansion to growing needs in the AI and semiconductor markets. The announcement gave no financial value for the project, so it did not provide a confirmed cost figure.
VSP foils are used in high-performance telecommunications infrastructure equipment, including servers, routers and switches, according to the company. Mitsui Kinzoku sees demand for the product rising with AI infrastructure applications, which rely on the telecommunications equipment cited. MicroThin is used in semiconductor packaging substrates, optical modules and smartphone motherboards. The company said demand is increasing for data center and memory applications related to packaging substrates, as well as for optical module applications in multilayer telecommunications boards. These uses link the planned expansion in Malaysia to telecommunications infrastructure, data center, memory and semiconductor sectors.
The new-site plan follows an earlier update to the schedule for increasing MicroThin output. On October 30, the company announced it was accelerating its plan to raise monthly production to 5.2 million square meters in the second half of fiscal 2026, then to 5.6 million in fiscal 2027 and 6.2 million in fiscal 2028. Mitsui Kinzoku said rising demand for semiconductor packaging substrates used in data centers and memory was among the drivers of the accelerated schedule, along with demand for optical module applications in multilayer telecommunications boards. This production path covers increases starting before the planned Malaysian site from 2031 and applies only to MicroThin in the figures announced for that schedule. The new-site plan, by contrast, includes additional capacity for both VSP and MicroThin.
In addition to the targeted capacity at the Malaysian site, the company said it is considering building VSP production capacity of up to 5,000 tons a month if the market expands further. Mitsui Kinzoku presented this level as an option under consideration in its plans tied to market expansion, without specifying a timetable for implementation. It represents a production level the company is considering above the announced total-capacity target of 2,600 tons a month, and is not a confirmed part of the capacity the new site will add. The announcement’s time-specific step is construction of the site beginning in 2031, with the stated monthly additions for the two products. The company did not specify the site’s cost or a final date for acquiring the land or starting production.