South Korea would avoid capitalizing on China’s ban on a US chipmaker, seeing the move by Beijing as an attempt to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington, a person familiar with the situation said.
The South Korean government would not encourage its memorychip firms to grab market share in China lost by Micron Technology Inc, which has been barred for use in critical industries by Beijing on national security grounds, the person said.
China is the biggest market for South Korea semiconductor firms Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc and home to some of their factories. Their operations in China are dependent on licenses granted by Washington, giving the US some leverage over Seoul’s decisions on how it balances its economic engagement with the two countries.
Photo: Reuters
South Korea is wary of taking advantage of the Micron situation, as it sees the US as a key long-term partner for its semiconductor industry and does not want to disrupt that relationship, the person said.
China’s Micron decision has drawn South Korea into the US-China battle over technology access and national security.
While Washington is Seoul’s top security partner, China is South Korea’s biggest trade partner.
“A broader ban of Micron semiconductors puts South Korea in the worst of both worlds,” Korea Economic Institute senior director Troy Stangarone said.
If South Korean companies do not help with filling the gap left by Micron, China could penalize them the way it did for Seoul’s deployment of a US anti-missile defense system — known as THAAD — on its soil, he said.
South Korea signaled that it would allow its companies to fill the gap left by China’s Micron ban, the Financial Times reported earlier this month.
The government in Seoul denied that, saying it had yet to announce any formal position.
It remains unclear whether China would expand its crackdown on US chipmakers or how the US would respond to Beijing’s ruling on Micron.
In a statement on Saturday, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said that the US was speaking to allies about China’s action on Micron.
“We see it as plain and simple economic coercion,” she said. “And we won’t tolerate it, nor do we think it will be successful.”
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