China yesterday said it would restrict exports to the US of some key components in making semiconductors, after Washington announced curbs targeting Beijing’s ability to make advanced chips.
Among the materials banned from export are metals gallium, antimony and germanium, Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that cited “national security” concerns.
Exports of graphite would also be subject to “stricter reviews of end-users and end-uses,” it said.
Photo: Reuters
“To safeguard national security interests and fulfill international obligations such as non-proliferation, China has decided to strengthen export controls on relevant dual-use items to the United States,” Beijing said.
“Any organization or individual in any country or region violating the relevant regulations will be held accountable according to the law,” it added.
China accounts for 94 percent of the world’s production of gallium — used in integrated circuits, LEDs and photovoltaic panels — according to a report by the EU published this year.
For germanium, essential for fiber optics and infrared, China makes up 83 percent of production.
In its own latest curbs, Washington on Monday announced restrictions on sales to 140 companies, including Chinese chip firms Piotech Inc (拓荊科技) and SiCarrier Technologies Co (新凱來), without additional permission.
They also impact Naura Technology Group Co (北方華創), which makes chip production equipment, the US Department of Commerce said.
The move expands Washington’s efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, which can be used in advanced weapons systems and artificial intelligence.
The new US rules also include controls on two dozen types of chipmaking equipment and three kinds of software tools for developing or producing semiconductors.
Separately, Dutch tech giant ASML Holding NV, which supplies chipmaking machines for the semiconductor industry, brushed off the announcement of fresh US export curbs to China, keeping its forecasts unchanged.
“For 2024, we do not expect any direct material impact on our business,” the firm said in a statement late on Monday.
“For 2025, we expect that the impact will fall within what was communicated at the time of our Q3 [third quarter] 2024 earnings,” it added.
The firm projected total net sales for next year of 30 billion to 35 billion euros (US$31,56 billion to US$36.82 billion), with sales from China making up about one-fifth of that.
Over the longer term, the new curbs did not impact its predictions for the health of the industry as a whole, ASML said.
“We therefore also confirm potential 2030 scenarios for annual total net sales between approximately 44 billion and 60 billion euros,” it said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
RSS