Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte speaks on the phone with US President Joe Biden on June 29, 2022. The United States has been pressuring the Netherlands to block exports of high-tech semiconductor equipment to China.
Susan Walsh | AFP | Getty Images
The United States and the Netherlands will further restrict sales of chip-making equipment this summer in a one-two punch against Chinese chipmakers, part of an ongoing effort by both countries to prevent their technology from being used to boost China’s military.
While the Netherlands plans to restrict some equipment from national champion ASML and others, the US is expected to go further and use its long-term leverage to withhold more Dutch equipment from specific Chinese factories.
The Dutch government and ASML declined to comment, as did the U.S. Commerce Department, which oversees export controls.
october usa imposed Citing national security concerns, it imposed export restrictions on U.S. chipmaking tools exported to China by U.S. companies such as Lam Research and Applied Materials, and lobbied other countries with major suppliers to adopt similar restrictions.
China’s Commerce Ministry said at the time it opposed the new U.S. rule, which also imposed other controls, including restrictions on certain high-end chips. They have damaged normal trade and economic exchanges between companies of the two countries and threatened the stability of global supply chains, the Commerce Department said.
Japan is home to chip equipment makers Nikon Corp and Tokyo Electron Co Ltd, since adoption Rules restricting the export of 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment will take effect on July 23.
The Dutch government plans to announce new regulations on Friday that will introduce licensing requirements for ASML’s second-best top-of-the-line deep-UV semiconductor equipment. ASML’s most advanced machines – extreme ultraviolet “EUV” lithography machines – have been restricted and never shipped to China.
ASML said in March that it expected the Dutch regulations to affect its TWINSCAN NXT:2000i and more complex models.
But the company’s older DUV models, such as the one called TWINSCAN NXT:1980Di, may also be banned by the U.S. at about half a dozen Chinese factories. The facilities are expected to be identified in a new U.S. rule that would allow the U.S. to restrict foreign equipment and even a small percentage of U.S. components from being shipped to the sites, according to a person familiar with the matter. This person is not authorized to speak publicly.
The source said the new Dutch regulation would not come into effect immediately, with one expecting a September date, two months after its publication.
The planned U.S. rules, which could be unveiled in late July, would require licenses to export equipment to about six Chinese factories, including a fab operated by China’s largest chipmaker SMIC, the sources said. People familiar with the U.S. plans said. Permits to ship equipment to the facilities could be denied, the person said.
The U.S. rules are expected to apply to ASML, the world’s leading maker of chip equipment and the largest in the Netherlands, because its systems contain U.S. components.
It is not uncommon for the U.S. to revise proposals before regulatory approval, so timing and limits could change. The plans described reflect thinking in late June.
The U.S. is also expected to make another update in July to its October sweeping rules, according to sources.
ASML is Europe’s largest chip equipment company because of its dominance in photolithography, one of the central steps in the process of making computer chips.
Other companies that could be affected by the new rules in the Netherlands include atomic layer deposition company ASM International. A spokesman for the Almere-based company declined to comment ahead of Friday’s announcement.