China, the vulnerable?
"One could imagine a similar warehouse in China today. The crates would hold a different kind of treasure – semiconductor production equipment. Given that some of these machines are bigger than Hong Kong mini-buses, the space needed to store them all would be huge.
Literally tons of foreign chip-making gear has been stockpiled by China in recent years – exceeding what is needed for current or even near-future production levels. That’s why companies like ASML in the Netherlands and Silicon Valley-based Lam Research are reporting China sales reaching levels of 46 per cent and 48 per cent of total revenues, respectively, in the third quarter.
China’s imports from the Netherlands soared in October, in what is seen as further evidence of Chinese stockpiling of lithography tools from ASML.
“The stunning surge in Chinese imports from the Netherlands over the past few months is a result of Beijing’s buying spree of Dutch chip machinery company ASML before the drawbridge gets pulled up,” ...
This is by no means a recent trend. ... in February 2021, under the headline: Is China a sucker for spending billions on foreign semiconductor equipment?
The US government has now tightened export controls on chip-making tools to China, to include less advanced lithography systems, as well as etch, deposition, implant and cleaning. ..."
Source: Latest issue of Inside China Tech published by South China Morning Post
No comments:
Post a Comment