U.S. official says export curbs on Russia hit car production and tank building

Sparc Technologies

30/03/2022 22:05

By Karen Freifeld
    March 30 (Reuters) - Global restrictions on exports to
Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine have shut down a
car maker, halted work on tanks and cut a Russian computer
maker's access to circuits used in communications equipment, a
U.S. official said on Wednesday.
    "Thirty-three countries have joined together with one export
controls strategy," said Thea Kendler, assistant secretary for
export administration at the Commerce Department. 
    "Necessity brought together this unprecedented collaboration
on export controls and other measures that are having a
meaningful impact on Putin's war."
    While only about 5% of Russia's imports came from the United
States, Kendler said, adding the European Union and other
coalition countries accounts for roughly 50 percent of Russia's
imports.
    Export controls were never expected to have immediate
effects, she said, but noted the Ukrainian government reported
that Russia's two major tank plants halted work over a lack of
foreign components. Baikal Electronics, a Russian semiconductor
company and computer manufacturer, was cut off from integrated
circuits to support its surveillance, servers, and other
domestic communications equipment, she added.
    Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker,
exited the Russian market, cutting off the Moscow Center of
SPARC Technologies  SPN.AX  access to Elbrus chips, which are
widely used in Russian intelligence and military systems, she
said. Lada halted auto production as export controls deprived it
of needed parts and supplies, she added. 
    Renault  RENA.PA , which controls the company that produces
the Lada, said it would suspend operations at its plant in
Moscow while it assesses options on its majority stake in
Avtovaz AVAZI_p.MM, the country's No. 1 carmaker.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VQ2XS
    Renault did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. Nor did TSMC. Baikal Electronics, the Moscow Center of
SPARC Technologies, and Russian tank maker UralVagonZavod could
not immediately be reached for comment.
    Kendler said she and other U.S. Treasury Department and
Commerce officials traveled to London, Brussels, Paris and
Berlin to bring the coalition together, and that extensive talks
also are going on with Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and
New Zealand.
    "I expect to be able to announce additional like-minded
export controls countries soon," she said.

 (Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chris Sanders and
Sandra Maler)
 ((karen.freifeld@thomsonreuters.com; +1(646) 223-6921;))