The US government upgraded the export restrictions on Huawei, a Chinese communications company last month to further combat its semiconductor chip supply, and Huawei also actively explored countermeasures, including negotiating and cooperation with semiconductor manufacturers such as Europe and Japan to avoid being subject to the United States.Among them, Taiwan Semiconductor Enterprise and the third largest unparalleled IC design dealer in the world have been accused of becoming the key to Huawei to avoid the restrictions of the United States.
When the US government's latest export restriction requires manufacturers to use the US technology or design semiconductor chip export to Huawei, they must obtain an export permit from the US government, and even manufacturers produced outside the United States are no exception.
This makes the direct transaction of Huawei and the main semiconductor foundry Taiwan's accumulated circuit manufacturing (TSMC, TSMC) will become difficult.
According to today (June 1) reports, Huawei has begun to discuss semiconductors produced by TSMC through MediaTek (California).In order to explore vulnerabilities, mainland Chinese companies will also contact Japanese companies, but the United States may further strengthen restrictions.
It is reported that Huawei has begun to establish a new relationship with MediaTek.It is planned to purchase semiconductors for 5G mobile phones from MediaTek.Relevant sources revealed that Huawei demanded a large number of purchases equivalent to about three times the transaction volume in the past few years.Analysis believes that if you purchase semiconductors without factories, you may avoid new restrictions.
In May 2019, the US Department of Commerce included Huawei into the entity list with security issues (Entity List), which has actually prohibited from exporting parts and software such as semiconductors produced in the United States.After that, Huawei has been looking for ways to avoid restrictions.
According to the US restrictions in 2019, if it is foreign production and the technology and software from the United States below 25 %, it will not be within the scope of restrictions.Huawei is designed and developed by Hisilicon Semiconductor, and has commissioned Taiwan to produce production. It has been establishing a semiconductor procurement system that does not rely on American companies.U.S. Minister of Commerce Ross said this time that it is necessary to modify the rules of being abused by Huawei and Hisilicon Semiconductor, and put forward new enhanced restrictions. Huawei is seeking to avoid through the procurement of circuitous channels.
TSMC adopts American production equipment, which expressed compliance with laws and restrictions after strengthening restrictions.Several relevant persons said that TSMC has stopped receiving Huawei's new orders.But whether the semiconductor commissioned by MediaTek is not disclosed, it is not disclosed.
At the same time, Huawei is still promoting negotiations with UNISOC, a subsidiary of Ziguang Group to deepen cooperation in the field of semiconductors, and may increase procurement semiconductor from the company.
Mainland Chinese companies also set their sights on semiconductor production equipment in Japan.A senior executive of a medium -sized equipment company in Japan stated that it has received consultation with alternative products that can manufacture American production equipment.
In order to produce the most cutting -edge semiconductor, for mainland Chinese companies, the problem is to transfer the circuit to the photoresal equipment used in this process.For the indispensable EUV (extremely ultraviolet) optical equipment for mass -produced cutting -edge semiconductor products, only ASMLs in the Netherlands worldwide have achieved practicality.
The Dutch government is still continuing to export. Some analysts believe that this is influenced by the intention of the US government, but Japan and Nikon are also producing light carved equipment other than EUVs.Some analysts believe that ASML is difficult to replace.Mainland Chinese companies lack the basic technologies of optical equipment, and it is not difficult to understand cooperation with Canon and Nikon.
The U.S. government is paying close attention, and senior officials of the Ministry of Commerce said for new restrictions that in order to achieve the goal, they will observe the actual results.Pay attention to attempts to avoid rules.The idea that the United States will discuss additional measures according to the movement of Huawei and its partners.
New restrictions in the United States have been implemented since mid -September.Prior to this, if Huawei cannot rebuild the semiconductor procurement system, the production of smartphones and communication base stations in the future may be affected.The new mobile phones listed on Huawei this fall may avoid the impact of restrictions, but some experts have pointed out that since the first half of 2021, the impact on the mobile phone business may gradually appear.
In other Japanese companies, Sony and semiconductor memory enterprise Kioxia (formerly Dongzhi memory), which is involved in semiconductor image sensors, is expected to maintain transactions with Huawei.However, Kioxia said that in the future, the supply of Huawei's smartphone supply is reduced, which is worried that the demand for memory is reduced.
