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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey D who wrote (2713)	8/29/2002 5:26:23 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

U.S. to ease export controls for fab tools in China By Mark LaPedus Semiconductor Business News (08/29/02 04:21 p.m. EST) SAN JOSE -- U.S. export control laws for fab tool shipments into China remains a cloudy issue, but sources believe that Washington has relaxed its regulations--at least to some degree. Sources indicated that the U.S. government has begun granting “special” licenses to select U.S. chip-equipment makers. This license enables a vendor to ship tools into China, which can reportedly process 0.18-micron chips, according to sources. But it's unclear if the U.S. government has changed its current policies. For years, there has been an unwritten rule that U.S. equipment makers could not ship tools into China that could make chips below 0.25-micron. Still, it's a confusing--if not a problematic--situation for U.S. equipment vendors and Chinese IC makers alike, said Victoria Hadfield, president of North American operations for the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade group. “It's still rather uncertain,” Hadfield said. “The U.S. government has not put out its new guidelines [in terms of the chip geometry restrictions in China], but China is moving ahead with 0.18-micron technology,” she told SBN. However, at the recent Semicon West trade show in San Francisco and San Jose, chip-equipment executives insisted they face little or no problems in obtaining export licenses to ship cutting-edge fab gear into China. And U.S. government officials claim they are denying few export licenses for fab tools into China. But current U.S. export laws still hurt tool makers in the United States, according to SEMI. Chip-equipment makers from Europe, Japan, and elsewhere are perceived to have an unfair advantage in China, because they have less stringent export laws in their respective nations, according to SEMI. And if current U.S. export rules are not changed or relaxed, U.S.-based equipment vendors also claim they could lose millions of dollars worth of business in China, the San Jose-based trade group claims. As a result, SEMI has thrown its weight behind a growing campaign to reform or remove U.S. export controls on chip-making technologies and tools in China (see Feb. 15 story ). U.S. tool makers can obtain export licenses for advanced fab gear, but “it's always a case by case basis,” Hadfield said. And it takes more time to obtain a license, as compared to a vendor in Europe and Japan, she added.