US targets China’s top chipmaking plant after Huawei Mate 60 Pro, sources say

The Biden administration is turning up the heat on China’s top sanctioned chip maker by cutting off its most advanced factory from more American imports after it produced a sophisticated chip for Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro phone, three people familiar with the matter said.

Late last year, the Commerce Department sent dozens of letters to US suppliers to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), suspending permission to sell to its most advanced plant, said two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the matter.

While many companies had already stopped selling to SMIC South, as the unit is known, the letters halted millions of dollars worth of shipments of chipmaking materials and parts from at least one supplier, Entegris, one of the people said.

Reuters found no evidence that Entegris had violated any US laws or regulations.

Entegris, whose shares fell 1.9 per cent on Wednesday, said it made the shipments in accordance with a valid export license and halted them after receiving letters from the Commerce Department suspending permission to send products to SMIC South. The Massachusetts-based company, which produces filters, gases, chemicals, and products for handling wafers, the building blocks for making chips, said it monitors and complies with the “rapidly evolving regulatory requirements” for international trade affecting the chip industry.