English|U.S. Plans to Beef up Crackdown on China’s Semiconductor Companies

English|U.S. Plans to Beef up Crackdown on China’s Semiconductor Companies
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BEIJING, May 10 (TMTPOST) — The U.S. Department of Commerce is considering imposing a ban that prevents American companies from selling advanced chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms, The Information reported, quoting two people familiar with the matter.
It is reported by The Information that the ban might be drafted within a few months and would affect Chinese semiconductor makers such as Hua Hong Semiconductor, ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp.
It is worth noting that Hua Hong Semiconductor has business operations in the fields of IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) for vehicles and IGBT wafers. This means that the issue of chip supply shortage in the car industry would become even more serious if the ban is to be implemented.
In fact, the potential ban from the U.S. Department of Commerce not only affects companies in mainland China but also multinational companies that have set up plants in the region.
South Korea’s SK Hynix, Germany’s Infineon, the Netherlands’ NXP Semiconductors and the United States’ Texas Instruments, etc. have all set up their plants in China. Although these plants are backed by foreign investment at nature, they would face the same export limits as their Chinese counterparts. It is worth noting that these multinational companies are also major suppliers of semiconductors for automakers. Their supply of semiconductors directly affects the operation of the automobile industry.
The ban will restrict American materials suppliers from supplying Chinese companies. It is estimated that companies such as Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA Corp will be affected. Last year, the three companies’ sales volume in China was US$14.5 billion, accounting one-third of their total revenues.
【English|U.S. Plans to Beef up Crackdown on China’s Semiconductor Companies】Sources familiar with the matter revealed that the U.S. Department of Commerce has been consulting American companies to confirm what chip equipment they need to include under the ban.

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