Japan said it would expand restrictions on exports of 23 types of leading-edge chipmaking technology, as the US ratchets up efforts to limit China’s access to key semiconductor know-how.
About 10 Japanese firms, including leading gearmaker Tokyo Electron Ltd, would need to get licenses to ship a broader-than-expected array of equipment used to transform silicon into chips, spanning cleaning, deposition, annealing, lithography, etching and testing.
Tokyo’s move follows months of lobbying by the US to get Japan to join it in tightening shipments of semiconductor tools to China. Japan and the Netherlands had agreed in principle to join the US, but have sought to chart a middle road between the two superpowers.
Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said the move was not in coordination with the US and was not a ban.
“These export controls apply to all regions and are not meant to target any one country,” he told reporters yesterday. “We will be looking at whether there is any danger of military appropriation.”
However, domains that are categorized as Japan’s most-favored trading partners — such as Taiwan and Singapore — would be able to continue importing without a license, trade ministry officials said.
Shipments of restricted equipment to China would require sign-offs by export control officials.
Japan’s announcement comes a day before Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi’s visit to China — the first by a foreign minister in more than three years. It also coincides with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) trip to the US.
With the help of the Netherlands and Japan, the US is seeking to create a global blockade to prevent China from getting key equipment now essential to make the most advanced chips used in quantum computing, advanced wireless networks and artificial intelligence.
Much hinges on how Japan implements the controls. If Japan refuses to approve any, that could be a blow for the country’s semiconductor equipment manufacturers, as well as for China, Morningstar analyst Kazunori Ito said.
Tokyo’s measures — which would be subject to public comment before implementation slated for July — affect a wide range of equipment, similar to the US curbs in scope. Etching machines that are capable of making 14 and 16-nanometer and more advanced chips would be affected, for instance.
“If our exports are not being reappropriated for military use, we will continue shipments,” Nishimura told reporters. “We believe the impact on companies will be limited.”
The US, Netherlands and Japan together control critical equipment now necessary for China to make leading-edge chips. Washington has banned US gear suppliers Applied Materials Inc, Lam Research Corp and KLA Corp from shipping some of their most advanced technology to China without a license. Japan’s Tokyo Electron and the Netherlands’s ASML Holding NV are the two other critical suppliers that the US needs to contain China’s technological ascent.
Japan’s planned export controls include tools used to clean silicon wafers of impurities, extreme ultraviolet mask-testers, as well as all immersion lithography machines. Screen Holdings Co, Lasertec Corp and Nikon Corp are suppliers of such equipment.
Over the long term, China would be forced to develop its own chipmaking machines, Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda said.
“A complete decoupling of standards in chips would make it difficult for China to produce semiconductors at low cost,” he said.
Beijing has said such restrictions threaten the stability of the global supply chain and that national security justifications are dubious.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS