The U.S. government has also given Taiwan's TSMC annual permits that will make it easier to bring U.S.-made equipment into its semiconductor plants in China.
On the 1st (local time), TSMC told Reuters that this would allow "uninterrupted fab operations and on-time product delivery." TSMC's China plant is in Nanjing.
Until last year, the U.S. government granted "Validated End-User (VEU)" status to the China plants of Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and TSMC, allowing U.S.-made equipment to be supplied without separate licensing procedures or time limits as long as certain security conditions were met.
However, as export restrictions tightened, the local subsidiaries operating the three companies' plants in China saw their VEU status expire on Dec. 31 of last year. As a result, the three companies had to obtain separate U.S. government approvals from each supplier every time they brought U.S.-made equipment into their semiconductor plants in China.
Under the new permits, the three companies can finalize plans this year to bring U.S.-made equipment into their China plants, minimizing future disruptions. Earlier, on the 30th of last month, the Donald Trump administration partially eased restrictions on bringing semiconductor equipment into the China plants of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The U.S. government decided to allow exports for the two companies by approving annual volumes of equipment shipments instead of maintaining their VEU status.