|
Introduce more retaliatory measures in response to the expansion of US-led controls on technology exports. “There will be more retaliatory measures against Western countries' increasing export controls on semiconductors,” said a senior official close to China's Ministry of Commerce. Shares of Chinese gallium and germanium producers rose on Tuesday following the announcement, with traders hoping export controls would push up the price of the metals. Metals for chip manufacturing are controlled by China Gallium Gallium is used to make semiconductor wafers used in integrated circuits and important light-emitting devices used in advanced circuits and solar cells. These are components in a wide range of technologies, including phones, high-performance computers, and medical devices.
The metal is a byproduct recovered from the processing of bauxite and zinc, and is then converted into gallium arsenide, which is used in wafer manufacturing. China controls 98% of global production, estimated in 2021. Processing of gallium Job Function Email Database into gallium arsenide is scattered across North America, Europe and Asia. Currently, the metal is not recyclable and there is no substitute for its use in some products. Germany Germanium is used to produce a silicon alloy for high-speed devices commonly found in many electrical products, such as electronics, solar applications, and fiber optics. China controls 68% of global refinery production, estimated at 140,000 kg in 2021. The rest of the processing is spread across Europe and North America. Germanium is more available than gallium, with about 30 percent of the world's supply produced from recycled materials.
The US also stocks germanium, with reserves of 80,000 kg in 2021. Silicon and other compounds can be used as a substitute for germanium, but often at the expense of performance. Source: United States Geological Survey Yunnan Lincang Xinyuan Germanium Industrial closed up the maximum 10 percent allowed in Shenzhen on Tuesday, while Yunnan Chihong Zinc & Germanium shares closed up 6 percent. The rally added a combined $350 million to the companies' combined market capitalization. “We will see China engage in the extraterritorial application of its laws, breaching treaty obligations and imposing tit-for-tat countermeasures, all in the name of China's perceived national security and public interest,” said James Zimmerman, a lawyer of Perkins Coie in Beijing. Zimmerman also noted that China last week passed a new foreign relations law that, in Beijing's eyes, has strengthened the legal basis for countermeasures against Western threats to national and economic security.
|
|