According to information published by the nipponese agency Nikkei Asia, American chip production equipment manufacturers have become more dependent on the Chinese marketplace despite the export restrictions imposed by Washington. American companies increase the supply to China of machines utilized to produce older, little advanced chip types.
China was liable for 43% of the sales of Applied Materials in February-April this year, which means an increase of 22% compared to the erstwhile year. China's share of Lam investigation sales increased by 20% between January and March to 42%.
This seems contrary to Washington's plans for export restrictions against China.
The U.S. government in 2022 created formal obstacles to the supply of American chip-making equipment utilized to produce state-of-the-art semiconductors. These sanctions, as the Washington administration has just communicated, were to halt China's improvement in this area.
During the Semicon West Fair, which took place in San Francisco during the past week, elder US government officials praised the success of the CHIPS and discipline Act, passed in 2022. This bill provides $52.7 billion in subsidies for investigation and production of chips in the US. It is simply a tool that attracts home and abroad chip manufacturers to launch fresh investments in the United States. During her speech at Semicon West, US Undersecretary of Commerce Laurie Locascio reported that thanks to the CHIPS and discipline Act, many crucial semiconductor marketplace players have decided to invest in the US, including Intel, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).
American semiconductor equipment manufacturers besides benefit from the launch of this law. For example, in 2023 gross from the US accounted for 15% of the full gross of the Company Applied Materials. This was a 6% increase compared to 2021. But it is inactive far besides small to balance the volume of orders coming from China, which are the main outlets in the industry.
As unofficially acknowledged by representatives of the US semiconductor manufacturing industry, China's share of full sales would be even higher if not limited. This increase concerns only unadvanced equipment.
SEMI – an global trade group organizing Semicon – announced in San Francisco that global sales of chip production equipment would increase by 3.4% this year, reaching a value of $ 109 billion. China will represent more than 30% of this market, will be the most crucial driver of request for equipment worldwide.
The increase in exports of unadvanced equipment to China poses a hazard to US producers as the exported equipment can aid make the Chinese home chip industry. Importantly, Beijing has established a national policy to make its own chip supply chains, possibly creating strong competition for US equipment manufacturers in the long term. And as in the case of electrical and combustion cars at least, yet push out American companies from the marketplace of semiconductor components occupied by them.
Source: Nikkei Asia
Leszek B. Glass
Email: [email protected]
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