newest! Semiconductor equipment head manufacturers will stop providing sales and services to China from now on

Source: Huaqiang Microelectronics

    Introduction: The latest news, Reuters quoted a source as saying that under the influence of the new regulations of the United States, the American chip equipment manufacturer KLA Corp will stop providing sales and services to corporate customers in mainland China from today. Some insiders believe that American equipment manufacturers will not really give up the Chinese market completely. Some media analysis also believes that more and more manufacturers will implement or strengthen sanctions against China, which will have a substantial impact on China‘s semiconductor industry.

    On October 12, according to the latest news from Reuters, KLA, the world‘s fifth largest semiconductor equipment supplier, stopped providing sales and services to corporate customers in mainland China from Wednesday (12) to comply with the latest regulations of the US government.

    According to the news, KLA‘s employees in China received an email from the legal department of the head office, saying that from 23:59 local time on Tuesday evening (that is, 12 Beijing time), the company will stop selling and serving 128 layer and above NAND chips, 18nm and below DRAM chips and advanced logic chips to "advanced chip factories" in mainland China.

    The source added that Kolei would also stop supplying Chinese chip factories under Intel and SK Hynix, the world‘s second largest memory chip manufacturer.

    In this regard, SK Hynix reiterated its position that it would seek equipment license according to the new export control rules to continue operating its factories in China. Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    In fact, since the United States introduced new regulations on chips and semiconductors to China, many American semiconductor devices have suspended their sales and services to China. Personnel from an overseas chip equipment company revealed that all major suppliers of the wafer factory are working around the clock to assess the long-term impact of the regulations.

    It is also reported in the industry that the on-site personnel of memory chip manufacturers YMTC and CXMT and American equipment manufacturers in several logic wafer factories have begun to evacuate one after another. Among them, the on-site personnel of Panlin Group have been evacuated on the 10th, and the on-site personnel of application materials will also be evacuated on the day when the new ban takes effect (the 12th).

    According to public data, Kelei was founded in Silicon Valley, California, USA in 1976, and is a world leading supplier of semiconductor testing equipment. In the financial report released by Kelei, about a quarter of the company‘s revenue in 2021 will come from customers in mainland China. China is its largest regional market.

    In the company‘s latest quarterly financial report (the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022, actually the second quarter of 2022), the operating income reached 2.487 billion US dollars, an increase of 29.15% over the same period of the previous year; The net profit attributable to the common shareholders of the parent company was 805 million US dollars, an increase of 27.24% over the same period of the previous year. At the financial report meeting, Rick Wallace has mentioned that "considering the high proportion of the Chinese mainland market, we will express our concern."

    After Kelei announced that it would stop serving China, some people worried that American equipment manufacturers would abandon China. Some insiders believe that American equipment manufacturers will not really completely abandon the Chinese market. For American equipment manufacturers, China has the largest market in the world. For economic benefit, except for the "red line" set by the new ban of the United States, they will actively apply for licenses if they can negotiate and apply for licenses.

    However, according to media analysis on the expansion of US sanctions against China, more and more manufacturers will implement or strengthen sanctions against China, which will have a substantial impact on China‘s semiconductor industry.

    Chen Hang, the author of the "semiconductor wind vane", pointed out in his analysis that this round of control measures will have a substantial impact on the chip supply, OEM, advanced process expansion, and technology acquisition of relevant enterprises in China.

    First, the supply of finished chips: NVIDIA/Qualcomm/AMD‘s advanced process chips will continue to be restricted from export by the United States due to their strategic application fields, which is the first means for the United States to block each round.

    Secondly, the limitation of chip foundry: referring to the three rounds of blockade against Huawei, the second time is for the foundry right of the wafer factory under the control of American equipment such as TSMC. The absence of domestic wafer factories will affect the advanced process;

    Third, capacity expansion restrictions: In order to restrict China‘s access to wafer foundry capacity, especially advanced processes, the United States will offer equipment trumpets, restrict the export of AMAT, LAM, KLA, and affect the export of some capacity.

    Han Xiaomin, general manager of Jiwei Consulting, believes that: "On the other hand, the US export ban is also an opportunity for the domestic chip industry. Previously, there was insufficient interaction between upstream and downstream enterprises in the domestic chip industry chain, but we will further increase domestic substitution in the future. Domestic industry chain enterprises should base on the domestic market, gradually establish a complete chip industry chain ecosystem, and improve the industry‘s risk resistance, competitiveness and global influence.

    From rejecting semiconductors made in China to "cutting off G" to China, the US‘s increasing semiconductor sanctions will bring "pain" to China‘s semiconductor industry in a short time. However, we believe that opportunities and challenges coexist, and opportunities outweigh challenges.

    Gu Wenjun, chief analyst of Xinmou Research, said that in the short term, the United States hopes to "decouple" and "break the chain" China‘s high-end chips; In the medium to long term, the United States hopes that it and its allies will no longer rely too much on China‘s market and reduce their exchanges with China‘s factors of production.

    From the perspective of this impact, China‘s storage industry will be hit hard, more than OEM. There is only 0 or 1 in the storage industry, unlike chip foundry, which has mature processes to do after the limitations of advanced processes. Because storage is a standard product, the price per unit of storage capacity is competing in the market. The price of memory chips manufactured by advanced technology is lower, and a generation of products will lose competitiveness and market if they fall behind. Therefore, if the storage of advanced technology is limited, it means that the advanced technology cannot be upgraded and expanded, and the market will be lost. In particular, our storage industry is still in its infancy. We have just been stumbling, and have been hit by a blow. Our storage enterprises are under great pressure to survive and develop. In a word, any new growth point of Chinese chips will upset the United States and will be targeted. In the next three years, our expansion and production continuity will be challenged.

    On the other hand, in addition to equipment, high-end chip talents related to advanced manufacturing processes are also a key issue. Because a series of new regulations implemented by the United States are mainly intended to limit China‘s ability in advanced manufacturing.

     According to the latest regulations revised by the United States on the 7th, from today on, "Americans" engaged in high-end chip manufacturing will be restricted until they obtain licenses, otherwise they may be subject to civil and criminal penalties. In recent years, the rapid development of the domestic semiconductor industry is inseparable from the support of many high-end "American talents". It is reported that the founders and core technicians of many leading semiconductor enterprises in China are American nationals, as well as the R&D center personnel of related enterprises in the United States.

搜索

复制