The US government is preparing to implement yet another phase of economic sanctions against China. According to senior officials in the Biden administration, the “next step” is to limit the amount of high-tech chips made by Korean companies on Chinese soil.
A measure should affect Samsung and SK Hynix, since both have factories in China and produce high-performance memory chips in these plants. Commenting on the subject, Alan Estevez, undersecretary of Industry at the US Department of Commerce, was emphatic in warning of the end of the deadline provided by the US for these companies.
Estevez said that in October 2022 the country gave the two manufacturers a year to adjust their production lines and follow the new guidelines from Washington.
What will likely happen is a cap on the levels of what they can produce in China.
Estevez also commented that the US government has maintained a constant dialogue channel with the main chip makers in Korea.
We work with them to ensure we don’t harm our allies’ businesses. At the same time, we will impede the Chinese ability to build technologies that will collectively threaten us.
For now, Samsung and SK Hynix have not commented on the matter. The South Korean Ministry of Industry, meanwhile, denied that it had discussed with the US any type of limit on the production of chips on Chinese soil.
Both South Korea and the United States formed a consensus that current operations and future investment by South Korean chipmakers should not be stopped.
Even so, the Korean ministry admitted that it should discuss with the US new measures that should be planned against the Chinese advance in the semiconductor market.
