The United States is making it more difficult for chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix to produce chips in China by revoking authorisations that allowed the companies to receive American semiconductor manufacturing equipment there, according to the Federal Register.
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The US Commerce Department had given the companies exemptions to sweeping restrictions created in 2022 on the sale of US semiconductor equipment to China.
The companies will now need to obtain licences to buy the equipment for China. The federal filing also included Intel among the companies that lost their authorisation for China, but Intel sold its Dalian China unit in a deal that was finalised earlier this year.
The Commerce Department and the three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The licensing change is likely to reduce sales to China by US equipment makers KLA Corp, Lam Research and Applied Materials. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Shares of Lam fell 3.7 per cent, Applied Materials dropped 1.9 per cent and KLA shares were down 2 per cent.
The United States and China are now operating under a tariff truce, with levies of 30 per cent on Chinese imports to the US and 10 per cent Chinese duties on US goods locked in until November. The trade war between the world’s two largest economies has affected everything from rare earths needed by US industry to China’s purchase of US soybeans.