Despite the sanctions imposed between the United States and China, semiconductor manufacturer TSMC has obtained a special exemption to import essential American equipment and technologies for its factories in China.
According to the U.S. sanctions list, the latest export rules imposed by the U.S. government in October 2022 prohibit the sale of tools and technologies necessary for producing chips with a manufacturing process less than 14 nanometers or 16 nanometers, 3D NAND memory chips with more than 127 layers, and DRAM ICs with a process size less than 18 nanometers to Chinese entities.
This information came through a statement by Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Wang Mei-hua, to Reuters, explaining that TSMC has obtained a one-year license to supply its Chinese factories with chip manufacturing equipment produced in the United States.
This means the company can ship American chip manufacturing equipment to China without needing individual import licenses for each tool on each occasion, but the obtained license has a limited duration of only 12 months.
Simultaneously, a spokesperson for TSMC mentioned that the company has applied to the U.S. government for a VEU (Validated End-User) license – an indefinite duration approved license – to import the necessary equipment to its plant in Nanjing, China. Notably, the VEU license has been available since 2007, but TSMC didn’t require it in the past.
TSMC’s participation in this initiative will streamline the company’s importation process, freeing it from the need to obtain separate permits for every import operation.
This simplification ensures the smooth operation of its factories in China, a strategy already adopted by Samsung and SK Hynix recently through their permanent import licenses for tools required in their Chinese facilities.
