U.S. semiconductor equipment firms told to wait for China to ease restrictions

WASHINGTON – Commerce Secretary Gina Raimond delivered a sober message to US chip equipment makers this week. Washington will have to wait nine months to reach a deal with US allies. On strict new rules aimed at restricting access to certain Chinese technologies.

The U.S. is working on a deal that would limit the sale of such equipment to China by Dutch and Japanese companies, home to major manufacturers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. U.S. companies are already bound by export controls and billions of dollars in lost revenue, they say, despite major European and Japanese competitors facing restrictions on sales in China. increase.

Raimond told representatives of U.S. companies that it could take six to nine months to reach an agreement aimed at leveling the playing field, according to people with direct knowledge of the talks. Told.

Washington on October 7 announced new export control rules limiting China’s access to advanced chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment made with U.S. technology.

Raimond made the comments Wednesday when he met with representatives of equipment makers such as Lam Research and KLA to discuss an undisclosed exchange, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A U.S. Department of Commerce spokeswoman declined to comment. Lam Her Research and her KLA representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The global semiconductor equipment market is dominated by US companies Lam Research, KLA, Applied Materials, Dutch ASML Holding and Japan’s Tokyo Electron. Non-U.S. suppliers now have more latitude in doing business with China. For the U.S. triumvirate, restrictions on what foreign competitors can ship to China can’t come fast enough.

Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA have warned investors that new export controls will reduce earnings. The risk for them is that until the restrictions are applied more evenly, foreign competitors will be able to gain market share in China, generate additional revenue, and use it to develop new products.

The overall market for semiconductor manufacturing equipment will shrink next year, according to estimates, but analysts predict that the three American companies will suffer a steeper revenue decline than their Japanese counterparts.

Washington is now preparing to pressure its allies to block chip gear sales to China.

According to Bloomberg News, a senior U.S. National Security Council (NSC) official, Tarun Chhabra, and Alan Estevez, undersecretary of commerce for industrial security, will travel to the Netherlands in late November to discuss regulating Chinese chips. But there is no hope of reaching an agreement. of talks.

Estevez said last week that he hopes to reach a deal with allies soon. He said he wanted the rules of American corporations to be “fair to our competition around the world and fair to our competition with each other”, citing him and national security advisers Jake Sullivan and He added that other officials, such as Ms. Raimondo, are in talks with allies about the matter.bloomberg