U.S. is pushing allies to join chip blockade against China

[November 05, 2022](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporter Zhang Wan) The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a report against the CCP regimesemiconductorAfter the export control regulations, the outside world has been paying attention to whether the allies of the United States will follow up.Recently, the White House is working hard to ensure that allies block the CCP’s semiconductors, and senior U.S. officials will go to China this monthNetherlandsPush ASML to join the blockade camp.

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On October 7 this year, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced the latest sanctions aimed at cutting off the CCP’s access to high-end advanced manufacturing processes.chipand related manufacturing equipment; crack down on the ability of Chinese companies to produce advanced chips and develop and maintain supercomputers.

The White House’s sanctions against the CCP this time are unprecedented.However, while the United States is currentlysemiconductorThe upstream market is dominant, but Taiwan, Japan and South Korea all occupy important positions in the global semiconductor industry chain. Therefore, the United States hopes that its semiconductor allies can also adopt similar control measures to intensify their efforts to crack down on the CCP.

According to a report jointly released by Boston Consulting Group (Boston Consulting Group) and the US Semiconductor Industry Association (Semiconductor Industry Association) in April 2021,Global semiconductor manufacturing capacity in 2019Among them, the United States accounted for 13%, Taiwan accounted for 20%, South Korea accounted for 19%, Japan accounted for 17%, Europe accounted for 8%, and China accounted for 16%.

U.S. Department of Commerce Undersecretary for Industry and Security Alan Estevez (Alan Estevez) held a meeting at the Center for a New American Security (Center for a New American Security) on October 27 this year.in an activitythe Biden administration is expected to reach an agreement with allies in the near future to jointly limit the CCP’s access to advancedchipand the capabilities of related manufacturing equipment.

Estevez said allies were not surprised by the U.S. ban on exports to China. He said that countries in the chip industry alliance had already told US officials that they were willing to participate in the ban on the export of semiconductor equipment to Chinese companies, but hoped that the US would take the lead. Now, “we’ve shown we’re in the game, we’ve taken the action, and I have every confidence we’ll make a deal (with allies).”

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National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also raised the importance of export controls in fighting hostile regimes like China at a technology summit in September. These controls, he said, could be a new strategic asset for the United States and allies to strike and degrade adversaries.

Japan discusses possible restrictions

Regarding the issue of implementing chip and equipment export controls on the CCP, according to a report by the Nikkei Asian Review on November 1,Insiders of the Japanese governmentat the request of Washington, Japan has started internal discussions on the issue, weighing what restrictions Japan can take, and will watch how other allies such as the European Union and South Korea respond.

Japan’s leadership in DOA (discrete, analog and optoelectronic devices, sensors) manufacturingproduction capacityAccounting for the largest share in the world, reaching 27%; accounting for 20% of the world’s production capacity in the field of memory chip manufacturing; accounting for 13% of the world’s production capacity in the field of logic chip manufacturing above 45 nanometers.

At the end of July this year, the United States and Japan held aEconomic “Two Plus Two” Ministerial Conference. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the opening ceremony that the CCP regime has been using economic coercion and retaliation to force countries to make choices that damage their national security, intellectual property rights, and economic independence.

Blinken said that as the world’s first and third largest economies, the United States and Japan must work together to safeguard the basic economic order.

A joint statement issued by the two sides after the meeting said that the two countries will promote the establishment of resilient supply chains in strategic areas such as semiconductors, batteries, and key minerals.

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Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Kouichi Hagita, who participated in the talks, said that Japan will move quickly to conduct research on next-generation semiconductors. He also said Washington and Tokyo had agreed to set up a “new research and development organization” to establish a secure source of critical components and that the results would be made available to like-minded countries.

South Korea Stuck With Its Chinese Factories

Since the two Korean semiconductor giantsSamsungElectronics (Samsung) andSK Hynix(SK Hynix) factories in China are greatly affected by the ban,Confirmed by SeoulSouth Korea’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy has negotiated with the US government on behalf of the two companies.

In the field of memory chip manufacturing, Korean companies have the world’s largest production capacity, accounting for 44%.South Korean tech giantSamsungElectronics is the world’s largest manufacturer of NAND flash memory chips,SK HynixIt is the second largest supplier of DRAM memory chips in the world. However, the two companies each get 40% of their memory chips from their factories in China.

After the United States issued sanctions against the CCP’s semiconductors this time, the factories of Samsung and SK Hynix in China have been granted a one-year exemption period, and they can continue to import the equipment needed to maintain the factories.

However, according to the “Nikkei Asian Review” news on October 25, both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix believe that the exemption period is only a deadline for them to make changes, and does not mean that they will continue to benefit. The two companies have already begun to assess the risks of their business in China and plan for possible future situations.

On October 26, an executive of SK Hynix said at the company’s third-quarter results conference that Hynix’s factory in Wuxi, China is currently facing many restrictions and difficulties. If the U.S. ban makes it difficult to maintain operations at the Wuxi plant, the company may adopt an emergency contingency plan to “sell the plant, sell the equipment, or ship the equipment back to South Korea.”

However, after the meetingHynix issued a statementThe company’s comments about a possible move of the company’s factories in China were based on an extremely unlikely scenario, he said. Hynix has not yet studied the relevant specific plans.

Taiwan says it will follow new U.S. rules

On October 8 this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China stated that Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has long served global customers and attaches great importance to compliance with laws and regulations. Therefore, it will also abide by the latest export controls introduced by the US government aimed at cutting off the CCP’s access to advanced semiconductors and equipment. measure.

Taiwan is an important manufacturing base for global semiconductors. According to the forecast released by Taiwanese research firm TrendForce in April this year, the global share (calculated by sales amount) of Taiwan’s semiconductor foundry companies will reach 66% in 2022.

In particular, TSMC, the world’s number one chip foundry, accounts for 92% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor production capacity below 10 nanometers.

Therefore, Taiwan plays an important role in the United States’ blockade strategy against China’s advanced chips. At present, TSMC’s most advanced chip production capacity is concentrated in Taiwan’s main island. In addition, the semiconductor factory that TSMC is building in Phoenix, Arizona, USA will use the most advanced 5nm process.

TSMC opened a chip factory in Nanjing, China, in 2018. Before the introduction of the U.S. restriction order, TSMC plans to expand the production capacity of 22/28nm mature process chips at the Nanjing plant. On October 12 this year, TSMC confirmed at its third-quarter performance meeting that its Nanjing factory has obtained a one-year license from the U.S. Department of Commerce to continue importing U.S. equipment.

U.S. officials will go toNetherlandsto lobby

In today’s semiconductor industry, the production of all advanced chips is inseparable from the equipment of a company, that is, the lithography machine of ASML in the Netherlands.

Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) is crucial to the production of chips with processes below 7nm, and Asmol is the only company in the world that can produce EUV.

ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography equipmentIncludeAbout 100,000 parts are supplied by more than 5,000 suppliers around the world, including suppliers in the United States.

According to Bloomberg News on November 2informationtop U.S. National Security Council official Tarun Chhabra and Commerce Department Undersecretary for Industry and Security Alan Estevez will leave for the Netherlands this month to lobby the Dutch government to join Semiconductor blockade against the CCP.

Asmol has so far not made it clear whether it will stop shipping its lithography machines to China. However, the company has informed its U.S. employees to comply with Washington’s ban and cease service to Chinese customers.

In the past two years, Asmol has not shipped its EUV lithography machines to China. And Washington is further pushing Asmol to stop selling to China its equipment for producing mature process chips-deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV).

Editor in charge: Lian Shuhua