US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and her South Korean counterpart agreed to “minimize uncertainties” of chipmakers’ investments amid new US semiconductor subsidies, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said yesterday.
Companies such as Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 memorychip makers, are concerned about the criteria for subsidies from the US’ CHIPS and Science Act, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said last month.
South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang asked Raimondo to help resolve chipmakers’ uncertainties about subsidy requirements, such as providing “excessive” corporate information and sharing excess profit with the US government, the ministry said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
Raimondo and Lee agreed to “continue discussions on the requirements and opportunities of the CHIPS Act” to “minimize uncertainties of corporate investments and business burdens,” they said in a joint statement.
Samsung is building a chip plant in Texas that could cost more than US$25 billion and has said it is reviewing the criteria, while SK Hynix parent SK Group is planning to invest US$15 billion in the US chip sector, including an advanced chip packaging factory, and has said it might apply for funding.
The US Department of Commerce last month said it would protect confidential business information and expects the requirement to share excess profit to only trigger when projects significantly exceed projected cash flow.
Lee also told Raimondo that South Korean companies are “highly concerned” that the one-year waiver of export controls they received to bring in necessary chip equipment to their Chinese plants would expire in October, the ministry said.
SK Hynix, which has chip plants in China’s Wuxi and Dalian, has expressed hopes the waiver would be extended.
The joint statement said that Raimondo and Lee agreed to cooperate on chip export controls to “protect national security while minimizing disruptions to global semiconductor supply chains” and “maintaining viability of semiconductor industries.”
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