Apple has suspended plans to use memory chips from China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. in its products, Nikkei Asia reported Oct. 17. The report comes days after YMTC was added to the Commerce Department’s Unverified List (see 2210070006) and after the agency announced a sweeping set of China-related export controls (see 2210070049). If Commerce can’t complete an end check of YMTC within 60 days after its addition to the UVL, the Chinese company may be moved to the more restrictive Entity List.
Chip export news
U.S. politicians are sending a mixed message on trade with Taiwan, experts said during an event hosted by the Hudson Institute, a right-of-center think tank mostly focused on foreign policy.
Russian semiconductor imports have dropped 70% since the country became subject to broad Western sanctions and export controls earlier this year, the Commerce, Treasury and State departments said in a joint alert last week. The alert, which provides an overview of the U.S. restrictions, said the measures are having "significant and long-lasting consequences on Russia’s defense industrial base," which relies extensively on foreign-sourced items, especially on imported microelectronics. Russia's semiconductor shortage has also dramatically dropped automobile and consumer electronics production, the alert said. Sanctions and export controls have resulted in "a sharp economic contraction for Russia" that will continue to drag on the Russian economy for years, the alert said.
New advanced computing and chip export controls against China (see 2210070049) represent an “unprecedented degree” of U.S. intervention to preserve technology leadership and could deal a major blow to China’s semiconductor industry, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report last week. But there are several “lingering gaps” in the new policy that the Bureau of Industry and Security should “swiftly” address if it hopes to make the rules as effective as possible, the report said, including adding more companies to the Entity List, making sure the restrictions are adopted by allies and ensuring the agency is properly staffed.
The Commerce Department is close to completing its work on a national export strategy, said Grant Harris, the International Trade Administration's assistant secretary for industry and analysis. Harris said he hopes the administration releases the strategy, which will outline efforts to increase foreign market access for U.S. manufacturers, farmers, carmakers and other industries (see 2104220033), in the “coming months.”
The top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said the administration has "a strong case for what they're doing" in restricting U.S. technology that aids the Chinese semiconductor industry (see 2210070049), but he questions how effective it will be unless the Netherlands and Japan go along.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week announced a broad set of new export controls it said will restrict China’s ability to acquire advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors. The controls, outlined in an interim final rule that will take effect in phases, will impose new restrictions on a range of advanced computing semiconductor chips and semiconductor manufacturing items, impose controls on transactions for supercomputer end-uses and certain integrated circuit end-uses, and introduce new restrictions on transactions involving certain entities on the Entity List.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should add China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. to the Entity List, China Tech Threat, an organization that advocates for stronger export controls on China, said in an Oct. 4 letter to BIS. The letter points to a potential partnership between Apple and YMTC (see 2209220022), which would “put U.S. and other foreign manufacturers out of business” and will allow China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to move closer to “achieving its objective of forcing companies to turn to China as their prime source for advanced technologies.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced a sweeping set of new export controls it said will restrict China’s ability to acquire advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors. The controls, outlined in a final rule that will take effect in phases, will impose new restrictions on certain advanced computing semiconductor chips and semiconductor manufacturing items, impose controls on transactions for supercomputer end-uses and certain integrated circuit end-uses, and issue new restrictions on transactions involving certain entities on the Entity List.
Taiwan is “constantly” examining its export controls to make sure they’re capturing sensitive technologies, although it remains unclear if the controls will be discussed within its “Chip 4” alliance with the U.S., South Korea and Japan, a senior Taiwan official said this week. Chen Chern-chyi, Taiwan’s deputy economic affairs minister, said the four countries recently held a preparatory meeting for the alliance, but the group hasn’t yet set a formal agenda or scheduled an official first session, according to an Oct. 5 Nikkei report. He said the alliance is mainly “to work with our partners to form a resilient supply chain.”