The US is preparing to crush the production of flash memory in China. Consequences will cover the whole world

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Эльяс Касми

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01 August 2022 17:55
01 Aug 2022 17:55

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The United States wants to stop the export of equipment for the production of NAND memory to China. China has become a strong player in this segment in recent years and is already threatening the stability of Western Digital and Micron. If the US authorities take this step, then other major memory manufacturers, Samsung and SK Hynix, which have their own factories in China, will also suffer. These are the main suppliers of memory modules for all modern devices.

US cunning new plan

The United States is considering introducing new limits on the supply of American “iron” for the production of chips to Chinese manufacturers of flash memory modules, Archyde.com writes. These chips are used in all modern devices – smartphones, watches, cameras, tablets, computers, etc.

Under new sanctions hit, including the company Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd (YMTC), the agency writes. it startup, founded in China in 2016 and has become a major player in the memory chip production market over the six years of its existence. Currently, she has a factory in the city at her disposal. Wuhan, producing up to 100 thousand 300 mm silicon wafers per month. The construction of the company’s second factory in the same city, which is designed to produce another 200,000 of these plates on a monthly basis, is in its final stages.

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The US plans to “cut off the oxygen” to Chinese memory vendors were reported to the agency by four people familiar with this issue. States have two goals – they want to save American manufacturers NAND memory from additional competitors and, along the way, weaken China’s position in the global semiconductor market, at the same time strengthening its own.

South Korea will also be hooked

The US authorities, trying to destroy the semiconductor industry in China, can harm other countries. On the territory of China there are two factories of the main player in the world market of NAND-memory – a South Korean company Samsung its share is 35.3% (first place). Has an interest in China Korean SK Hynixin the process of buying out a business Intel in China for the production of flash memory. Its market share is 18% (third place, data Statista.com for the first quarter of 2022). The second line is Japanese Kioxia (18,89%).

What game is America playing?

Reprisals, if approved administration of the President USA Joseph Biden (Joseph Biden) will include a ban on the supply American chip manufacturing equipment to factories in China that produce advanced microchips NAND.

According to two unnamed interlocutors Archyde.com, authorities The United States is going to completely ban the export to China of any equipment used in the production of NAND modules, which include more than 128 layers. Currently, the main exporters of this “iron” in the United States are two companies located in San Francisco – this is Applied Materials и LAM Research Corp.

Chinese factories for the production of NAND-chips under the gun

This move is aimed, among other things, at protecting the only US manufacturers of flash memory on the world market. These are Western Digital and Micron. They are also in the top 5 global manufacturers, but only close it – WD has only 12.5% ​​of the market, and this is the fourth place, and Micron has the fifth line and 10.9%.

According to consulting firm Yole Intelligence, chip production NAND in China rose to more than 23% of global output in 2022 from less than 14% in 2019, while US production declined from 2.3% to 1.6% over the same period. As for US companies, almost all of their chip production is done overseas.

As of the first days of August 2022, consideration of the issue of new sanctions was at an early stage, Archyde.com sources say. At the request of the agency to comment on possible repression, the representative US Department of Commerce, which oversees export control, refused. He only noted that “the Biden administration is focused on undermining China’s efforts to produce advanced semiconductors to address significant national security risks.

Really serious threat

YMTC may strip WD and Micron their power in the NAND market. This is stated in the report white housedated June 2021. The document states that Western Digital and Micron are currently “under pressure from low YMTC prices.”

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In other words, Chinese vendor actively dumpingto take a significant market share and move their American competitors. The company receives large injections from the Chinese authorities – in total, it received subsidies worth the equivalent of $24 billion. In addition, it is currently negotiating with Apple on the supply of memory chips for its iPhone.

According to statistics from Yole Intelligence, YMTC accounts for regarding 5% of global flash memory chip production. This is almost double what it was a year ago. The share of Western Digital, indicated in its report, is regarding 13%, and Micron – 11%.

No Chinese processors

Authorities The United States is determined to deprive China of the production of not only memory chips, but also central processing units. The mechanism is the same America wants to ban supplies to China of the equipment necessary for this, moreover, the first and most important step in this direction has already been taken.

In this case, the US authorities are putting pressure not on American hardware suppliers, but on Dutch ASML, the largest vendor for production processors. Previously, she had already refused to supply China with ultra-modern equipment for EUV lithographsused for the production of semiconductors according to the most current standards on the most modern technological processes.

Chinese-made processors are also not to the liking of the American authorities

At the beginning of July 2022, as informed CNews, USA decided to do the same trick with equipment ASML for DUV-lithography, used for the production of microcircuits according to older technical processes. ASML has not yet given its consent because export DUV-iron China brings her an impressive share of the total revenue.

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Digitization

In China, there is a large contract semiconductor manufacturer – SMIC. While the politicians are waging their arguments, she is slowly learning the modern methods of lithography. At the end of July 2022, it became knownwhat minimum wage managed to master 7-nanometer production by cloning technologies Taiwanese companies TSMC – leader in the segment of contract production of microcircuits.