After Micron ban, Chinese chip firm CXMT should go on U.S. trade blacklist, top lawmaker says

Yellow Pages

23/05/2023 20:47

(Adds background on CXMT, analyst comment, company comment)
    By Stephen Nellis and Karen Freifeld
       WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce
Department should add Chinese memory chip maker Changxin Memory
Technologies (CXMT) to a trade blacklist after Beijing earlier
this week banned the sale of some chips by U.S.-based Micron
Technology Inc  MU.O , the chair of the U.S. House of
Representatives' committee on China said on Tuesday.
        The restrictions this week by China's cyberspace
regulator against Micron, the biggest U.S. memory chipmaker, are
the latest in a widening trade dispute between the world's two
largest economies.
        "The United States must make clear to the PRC (People's
Republic of China) that it will not tolerate economic coercion
against its companies or its allies. The Commerce Department
should immediately add ChangXin Memory Technologies to the
entity list and ensure no U.S. technology, regardless of
specifications, goes to CXMT, YMTC, or other PRC firms operating
in this industry," Representative Mike Gallagher said in a
statement.
    YMTC, which refers to Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp, is a
Chinese chipmaker put on the entity list December 2022.
        The powerful lawmaker also added that the Commerce
Department must ensure "no U.S.-export licenses granted to
foreign semiconductor memory firms operating in (China) are used
to backfill Micron, and our South Korean allies, who have
experienced exactly this kind of CCP (Chinese Communist Party)
economic coercion firsthand in recent years, should likewise act
to prevent backfilling," Gallagher said.
    A representative for CXMT could not be immediately reached
for comment.
    Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd  005930.KS  and SK Hynix
 000660.KS  both operate memory chip factories in China. Those
companies and other non-Chinese firms were spared the brunt of
U.S. export controls on chip manufacturing gear imposed in
October, but they are operating under exemptions from the U.S.
rules that can expire or be revoked.
        CXMT is China's most advanced maker of dynamic
random-access memory (DRAM) chips. Analysts believe it is two to
three generations behind industry leaders Micron, Samsung and SK
Hynix. 
        Gallagher's call comes weeks after U.S. makers of
chipmaker equipment say they received a clarification from U.S.
export control authorities that will allow them to ship more
tools to China than initially anticipated. 
    Lam Research Corp  LRCX.O , the leading maker of tools for
manufacturing memory chips, told investors the clarification
could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in additional
sales from China.
        The clarification from the Commerce Department concerned
how memory chip features will be measured for the purposes of
applying export control rules. The looser implementation came
after a group called the Coalition of Semiconductor Equipment
Manufacturers started lobbying last year, according to two
sources familiar with the matter. 
        Some of the coalition's lobbyists have also done work
for Lam Research, according to lobbying disclosure records.
        A Commerce Department spokesperson declined to comment.
Lam Research and the lobbyists representing the coalition did
not immediately respond to a request for comment.
        
  

 (Reporting by Chris Sanders and Rami Ayyub
Editing by Chris Reese and Anna Driver)
 ((Rami.Ayyub@thomsonreuters.com;))