Global restrictions on exports to Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine have shut down an automaker, halted work on tanks and cut a Russian computer maker’s access to circuits used in communications equipment, a US official said on Wednesday.
“Thirty-three countries have joined together with one export controls strategy,” US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea Kendler said.
“Necessity brought together this unprecedented collaboration on export controls and other measures that are having a meaningful impact on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war,” she said.
While only about 5 percent of Russia’s imports come from the US, the EU and other coalition countries account for about 50 percent of Russia’s imports, she added.
Export controls were never expected to have immediate effects, but the Ukrainian government reported that Russia’s two major tank plants had halted work over a lack of foreign components, she said.
Baikal Electronics, a Russian semiconductor company and computer manufacturer, was cut off from integrated circuits to support its surveillance, servers and other domestic communications equipment, she said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, exited the Russian market, cutting off the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies’ access to Elbrus chips, which are widely used in Russian intelligence and military systems, she said.
Lada halted auto production as export controls deprived it of needed parts and supplies, she added.
Renault, which controls the company that produces the Lada, said it would suspend operations at its plant in Moscow while it assesses options on its majority stake in Avtovaz, the country’s No. 1 automaker.
Renault did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did TSMC. Baikal Electronics, the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies and Russian tank maker UralVagonZavod could not immediately be reached for comment.
Kendler said she and other US departments of treasury and commerce officials traveled to London, Brussels, Paris and Berlin to bring the coalition together, and that extensive talks are also going on with Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
“I expect to be able to announce additional like-minded export controls countries soon,” she said.
This week’s undoing of the TerraUSD algorithmic stablecoin and its sister token, Luna, has ramifications for all of crypto. First, there is the immediate impact: The rapid collapse of a once-popular pair of cryptocurrencies sent a ripple effect across the industry, contributing to plummeting coin prices that wiped hundreds of billions of market value from the digital-asset market and stoked worries over the potential fragility of digital-asset ventures. Then there are the knock-on effects. In addition to delivering punishing losses to individual users and investment firms, the spectacular failure of a market darling like Terra threatens to have a cooling effect
China’s biggest chipmaker has cut its outlook for the second quarter, joining a growing list of manufacturers warning about the fallout from lockdowns aimed at containing the country’s worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co (SMIC, 中芯) estimates a month-long lockdown in Shanghai could spur component shortages and logistics tangles, and erase about 5 percent of its output in the second quarter. “We are trying our best to mitigate the impact on product delivery,” SMIC Chairman Gao Yonggang (高永崗) told analysts on a call yesterday morning. “We are still assessing the actual impact as many suppliers restart their
DISRUPTIONS: The war in Ukraine, China’s lockdown measures, rising interest rates and inflation have thrown a wrench into business plans made years in advance Samsung Electronics Co is talking with foundry clients about charging as much as 20 percent more for making semiconductors this year, joining an industry-wide push to hike prices to cover rising costs of materials and logistics. Contract-based chip prices are likely to rise around 15 percent to 20 percent, depending upon the level of sophistication, people familiar with the matter said. Chips produced on legacy nodes would face bigger price hikes, while new pricing would be applied from the second half of this year, they said, adding that Samsung has finished negotiating with some clients and is in discussions with others. Samsung’s decision
material SHORTAGE: Even as workers are about to return, Quanta lacks operating supplies, while Pegatron reported its lowest revenues in 11 quarters, the companies said Taiwan’s major Apple Inc supplier cut its outlook for the second quarter, joining a growing list of manufacturers warning about the fallout from lockdowns aimed at containing China’s worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years. Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), which assembles MacBooks, expects a 20 percent quarterly fall in notebook shipments and a squeeze on margins this quarter due to the lockdown, a company representative said on Friday during an earnings call. The impact from supply chain disruptions could last until the end of the year, she said. The company’s Shanghai factory has been operating under tight restrictions since the middle of last month,