Japan said it would expand restrictions on exports of 23 types of leading-edge chipmaking technology, as the US ratchets up efforts to limit China’s access to key semiconductor know-how.
About 10 Japanese firms, including leading gearmaker Tokyo Electron Ltd, would need to get licenses to ship a broader-than-expected array of equipment used to transform silicon into chips, spanning cleaning, deposition, annealing, lithography, etching and testing.
Tokyo’s move follows months of lobbying by the US to get Japan to join it in tightening shipments of semiconductor tools to China. Japan and the Netherlands had agreed in principle to join the US, but have sought to chart a middle road between the two superpowers.
Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said the move was not in coordination with the US and was not a ban.
“These export controls apply to all regions and are not meant to target any one country,” he told reporters yesterday. “We will be looking at whether there is any danger of military appropriation.”
However, domains that are categorized as Japan’s most-favored trading partners — such as Taiwan and Singapore — would be able to continue importing without a license, trade ministry officials said.
Shipments of restricted equipment to China would require sign-offs by export control officials.
Japan’s announcement comes a day before Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi’s visit to China — the first by a foreign minister in more than three years. It also coincides with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) trip to the US.
With the help of the Netherlands and Japan, the US is seeking to create a global blockade to prevent China from getting key equipment now essential to make the most advanced chips used in quantum computing, advanced wireless networks and artificial intelligence.
Much hinges on how Japan implements the controls. If Japan refuses to approve any, that could be a blow for the country’s semiconductor equipment manufacturers, as well as for China, Morningstar analyst Kazunori Ito said.
Tokyo’s measures — which would be subject to public comment before implementation slated for July — affect a wide range of equipment, similar to the US curbs in scope. Etching machines that are capable of making 14 and 16-nanometer and more advanced chips would be affected, for instance.
“If our exports are not being reappropriated for military use, we will continue shipments,” Nishimura told reporters. “We believe the impact on companies will be limited.”
The US, Netherlands and Japan together control critical equipment now necessary for China to make leading-edge chips. Washington has banned US gear suppliers Applied Materials Inc, Lam Research Corp and KLA Corp from shipping some of their most advanced technology to China without a license. Japan’s Tokyo Electron and the Netherlands’s ASML Holding NV are the two other critical suppliers that the US needs to contain China’s technological ascent.
Japan’s planned export controls include tools used to clean silicon wafers of impurities, extreme ultraviolet mask-testers, as well as all immersion lithography machines. Screen Holdings Co, Lasertec Corp and Nikon Corp are suppliers of such equipment.
Over the long term, China would be forced to develop its own chipmaking machines, Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda said.
“A complete decoupling of standards in chips would make it difficult for China to produce semiconductors at low cost,” he said.
Beijing has said such restrictions threaten the stability of the global supply chain and that national security justifications are dubious.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS