China News Express: Before ban

chiny24.com 1 year ago

Before the ban

In October, China brought in 21 latest lithographic machines for the production of integrated circuits/chips produced by the Dutch company Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography Holding N.V. more widely known as ASML. The value of these purchases is USD 672.5 million (about PLN 2.71 billion).

In November 2023, 16 machines of this maker were imported into China worth USD 762.7 million (about PLN 3.07 billion). This means an increase in the volume of ASML imports by 1050% in the year-to-year ratio. This extraordinary activity is, of course, linked to the ban on exporting ASML machines to China, which began on 1 January 2024, and which was introduced by the governments of the Netherlands and Japan on the initiative of the American administration.

ASML is the world's largest exporter of lithographic machines, utilized to produce the world's most advanced chips. Under American pressure, ASML halted the shipment of machinery contracted by Chinese companies in December 2023. The United States is trying different methods to hold the self-reliance of China in producing state-of-the-art integrated circuits. However, there are many indications that US actions (as foreseen by US advisory centres) have the other effect. The rate of Chinese technological advancement is expanding and the volume of forces and measures directed by the Chinese authorities towards the improvement of the full semiconductor production sector makes China's decline in chip production faster than expected a year ago.

Moreover, China has allocated immense resources to make an independent supply chain and production of little advanced processors (over 14 nm) that are utilized in the production of cars or household appliances. Today, the largest manufacturers of specified processors, which account for over 80% of the planet marketplace demand, study that they are gradually losing the Chinese market, the world's most crucial market.

Also, it is inactive unclear how it happened that the Chinese company Huawei, which was blocked by the United States, was able to produce the processor itself, which became the heart of the latest smartphone Huawei Mate 60 Pro, which has features and computational capabilities of 7 nm chips. In the founding of the American administration, specified chips were to be able to produce no faster than 10-15 years from now.

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