China’s imports of Dutch lithography machines have surged this year, with the first seven months already surpassing ASML Holding’s previous forecast for 2023 sales to China, according to a new report, as Chinese firms stock up on the equipment ahead of new export curbs.
From January to July, Chinese imports of Dutch-made lithography machines, nearly all from chip equipment giant ASML, grew 64.8 per cent year on year to US$2.58 billion, Chinese semiconductor industry consultancy JW Insights said in a report published on Friday, citing China customs data.
In January, ASML projected that its sales to China this year would remain steady at about 2.2 billion euros (US$2.36 billion), or 14 per cent of its total annual revenue.
In July, China imported US$626 million worth of lithography machines from the Netherlands, nearly eight times larger than the same month last year, according to the report.
ASML has a near monopoly on the world’s most advanced lithography machines, which are required for the production of cutting-edge chips. Under US pressure, the company has cut off exports of its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems to China.
China can make the machines they’re buying. The tech isn’t too hard.
EUV on the other hand needed several billions of dollars, years of research, and three US Department of Energy Labs to develop, then investment in optics from the EU.
The US asked the Dutch government to stop selling China tech that the US government licensed to them.
ASML had to put in a decades of r&d to make EUV work too. It wasn’t like they could just go over the research and start building. So yeah, it’s difficult.