US-China tech war clouds SK Hynix's plans for big chip plant

SEOUL • Plans by South Korea's SK Hynix to overhaul a huge facility in China so it can make memory chips more efficiently are in jeopardy, said sources familiar with the matter, because United States officials do not want advanced equipment used in the process to enter China.

The potential setback could make SK Hynix, one of the world's biggest suppliers of DRAM memory chips that go into everything from smartphones to data centres, the next victim of the geopolitical struggle between the US and China.

SK Hynix production plans call for the company to upgrade a mass production facility in Wuxi, China, with some of the latest extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) chipmaking machines made by Dutch firm ASML, said three people with knowledge of the matter.

The US in the past has objected on the grounds that shipping such advanced tools to China could be used to strengthen the country's military.

A senior White House official declined to comment on whether US officials would allow SK Hynix to take EUV tools into China. But he said the Biden administration remains focused on preventing China from using US and allied technologies to develop state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing that would help China modernise its military.

The Wuxi factory is critical to the global electronics industry because it makes about half of SK Hynix's DRAM chips, which amounts to 15 per cent of the global total. Any major changes could have an impact on global memory markets, where analyst firm IDC says demand is growing at 19 per cent this year alone.

As newer styles of chips make up a greater share of SK Hynix's production in two to three years, the company will need the EUV machines to control its costs and accelerate production, said a source with knowledge of the company's operations in China.

The extent of the concerns inside of SK Hynix has not been previously reported.

If the situation is not resolved in the next several years, SK Hynix could stand at a disadvantage against rivals such as No. 1 memory chipmaker Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology of the US, the other two major players in the DRAM market.

Both Samsung and Micron are shifting to ASML's EUV machines but are not using them at factory locations where the machines face export restrictions.

The question of ASML machines has drawn enough concern within SK Hynix that chief executive Lee Seok-hee raised the issue with US officials during a visit to Washington in July, according to two people briefed on his visit.

SK Hynix declined to comment on the matter, adding that it operates flexibly according to various market environments and is doing its best to respond to market and customer demands without issue.

An ASML spokesman said the company abides by all export control laws and views them as a "valid tool" for governments to ensure national security.

But the company said the overuse of those controls "might impact the production capacity needed to stay ahead of the increasing demand for semiconductors".

"It is likely that widespread use of export controls could exacerbate microchip supply chain issues, which are already a major concern of governments and policymakers around the world because of the spillover effect to other industries" such as the automotive industry, the spokesman said in a statement.

Analysts do not believe that US officials would view SK Hynix's efforts to take an EUV tool into China any differently than earlier efforts by Chinese firms.

"They're really caught between a Chinese rock and a US hard spot," said Mr Dan Hutcheson, CEO of VLSIresearch, who added that the rules would likely apply to any chip manufacturing operations in China, foreign or domestically controlled.

REUTERS