Microchip, the Netherlands restricts Asml’s business in China
The Netherlands, following US input, has partially revoked Asml's license to export machinery for the production of microchips to China. Beijing protests, while the Dutch company reassures on the accounts
The Dutch government has partially revoked ASML, Europe's most advanced microchip equipment company, a license to export chip-making machinery to China. The systems subject to restrictions include some for lithography, a highly complex process that allows the creation of circuits on very small scales and in which ASML boasts global leadership .
THE IMPACT ON CHINA AND ASML
ASML said the Dutch government's decision, which follows restrictions on technology trade applied by the United States to China, will impact "a small number of customers in China." ASML's most sophisticated machines, those for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, were already restricted and were never sent to China.
Specifically, the Dutch authorities have partially revoked the license to export the NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems to China. According to ASML, the measure will not have a significant impact on its financial prospects. Yet in recent years, China has been the third largest market for the company, after Taiwan and South Korea, and even the largest ever in the third quarter of 2023, when it represented 46 percent of total sales.
It is not clear which Chinese companies were supposed to receive ASML's machinery, but one of the Veldhoven company's main Chinese customers is SMIC, China's largest microchip manufacturer.
– Read also: Everything about Smic, the most important microchip company in China
CHINA'S REPLICA
China criticized the Dutch government's decision, calling on it to "respect market principles" and "be impartial".
THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES
In 2023, driven by the aim of preventing China from accessing advanced digital and defense technologies, the United States announced export control measures on machinery containing American intellectual property, even if made in third countries. These measures gave Washington the power to limit sales of ASML's Twinscan NXT1930Di machine: it is used for deep ultraviolet, or DUV, lithography.
“In recent discussions with the US government, ASML has obtained further clarification on the scope and impact of US export control regulations,” the company said in a statement. “ASML is fully committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations, including export control legislation in the countries in which we operate.”
In October the United States also introduced restrictions on the sale in China of semiconductors that NVIDIA – the most important microchip company by market capitalization – had developed specifically for the Chinese market, "weakening" advanced devices already subject to commercial limitations.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/asml-revoca-licenza-esportazione-cina/ on Tue, 02 Jan 2024 15:16:37 +0000.