Just yesterday, well-informed sources reported that at least two foreign companies were able to obtain permission from the US Department of Commerce to continue supplying advanced chip production equipment to China without the need to issue export licences. One of these companies became known yesterday: it was a South Korean SK hynix, and today similar news has been received about the competing Samsung Electronics.
In any event, in such a context, mention is made of the name of the world's largest producer of memory chips, The Wall Street Journal, citing its own informed sources. Samsung Electronics' memory chips are located in two Chinese cities, and the Korean giant will now be able to continue their technological re-arming without having to negotiate all deliveries with American officials as part of the new US export control requirements that came into effect this week.
Samsung Electronics officials continue to remain silent about allowing advanced equipment to be delivered to the PRC for the next 12 months without obtaining licences in the United States. Samsung in China has a solid memory factory in Siane and a microscheme testing and packaging plant in Suzhou.
As of the second quarter of this year, Samsung controlled 43.5 per cent of the world ' s operational memory market and about one third of the solid memory segment; however, the extent to which US sanctions will affect Samsung ' s ability to deliver a certain range of memory to its Chinese clients is still to be assessed.