According to Chinese state media and commentators, the European Union and the United States will not be able to accomplish their objectives of reducing their businesses ‘ reliance on China’s legacy chips ( 28 nanometers or higher ), because the products have a price advantage.
The comments come after Bloomberg reported on Monday that the EU-US Trade and Technology Council, which was established in 2021, will meet in Belgium in April to debate whether northern companies are overly dependent on China’s intelligent or lower-end electronics.
According to the report, the EU might join the US in raising a potential threat to global supply chains, citing a document working statement. It might look into how profoundly identity Chinese chips are embedded in business sites.  ,
According to the draft,” the EU and the US will continue to gather non-confidential information and market intelligence about non-market policies and practices,” as well as to read each other on organized actions.  ,
Before implementing any mutual actions, such as limitations and other restrictions, the European Commission may conduct a survey to learn about the state of the sector.
A new survey was released by the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security ( BIS ) at the beginning of this year to find out how US companies are sourcing both current and legacy chips.
In articles published on Tuesday and Wednesday, China’s commentators criticize the US for trying to thwart the progress of the country’s identity chip industry.  ,
” It seems that the US has begun to change its approach, consulting its supporters to fight China’s device imports”, Hu Weijia, a Chinese poet, says in an article published by the International Times on Tuesday. ” But it wo n’t be easy for the US side to score points”.
” After the US failed to hinder China’s semiconductor manufacturing capability, it may place more emphasis on restricting silicon sales”, he says.  ,
” However, Washington may find it more difficult to break down on the selling of semiconductors, even if it forces its supporters to label those cards as a threat to national security, partly due to Chinese chips ‘ cost advantages over their Western counterparts”, he says.  ,
A columnist from Fujian, published on Wednesday, claims that US President Joe Biden has banned China from exporting advanced chip-making equipment but that he has made no predictions about how China will increase its production of legacy chips.  ,
” Legacy chips can be widely used in cars, medical equipment and machines”, he says. ” Many Chinese chipmakers, including the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp and Huahong Group, are now concentrating on the production of these chips,” said Huahong Group.
He adds that some Chinese chipmakers are significantly boosting their capacity for production while Qualcomm, Nvidia, Intel, and Micron, which are all operating in the United States, are all losing market share.  ,
China has 44 operational semiconductor wafer fabs, with an additional 22 under construction, according to a report released by research firm TrendForce in January. The overall increase is greater than the combined total for the rest of the world. 32 Chinese wafer factories will increase their capacity by the end of this year so they can produce older, older, and 28 nm chips.  ,
At the end of last year, China’s global market share for mature chips was 31 % and will increase to 39 % by 2027, said TrendForce. For the same period, Taiwan’s global market share for legacy chips will decrease from 44 % to 40 %.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated in December that the US had seen signs of potentially unfavorable Chinese practices that could increase PRC-based companies ‘ legacy chip production and make it more difficult for US suppliers to compete.  ,
Wang Wentao, the head of Chinese commerce, called Raimondo on January 11 to say that China is deeply concerned about the recent investigation into American companies ‘ purchases of mature chips.
On January 8, the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party recommended that the US impose” component tariffs” on China’s legacy chips in finished goods.  ,
Read: US- China chip war may extend to legacy chips
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