JX Metals announced on the 5th that it will raise production capacity for its high-purity copper sulfate "Upinorg" by about 50% compared with the first half of fiscal 2026, responding to expanding demand for advanced semiconductors driven mainly by generative AI applications. The investment, in the low billions of yen, will add a manufacturing line at its Ibaraki Plant (Hitachi District), with the new equipment to be brought online sequentially from the second half of fiscal 2027. Upinorg is produced using the company's proprietary high-purification processing technology, with purity raised to 99.999% or higher for semiconductor applications, and is widely used in copper plating solutions for through-holes and via filling in printed circuit boards and in materials for the damascene process in semiconductor manufacturing, with a manufacturing track record of more than 40 years. The capacity increase comes as demand surges for high-quality copper plating materials used in advanced semiconductor packaging and HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), and the company aims to meet the needs of customers seeking long-term stable supply. JX Metals positions the electronic materials field as a growth area on the foundation of its nonferrous metal smelting business, and this investment aligns with that policy. Because the added output will actually reach the market only from the second half of fiscal 2027 onward, the current tight supply-demand balance will not be eased immediately.