On the evening of July 3, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs issued an announcement that in order to safeguard the best interests and interests, it was decided to implement export controls on gallium and germanium related items from August 1.
The announcement states that substances that meet the relevant characteristics may not be exported without permission. Among them, there are 8 gallium-related items and 6 germanium-related items.
The announcement emphasizes that exporters shall go through the export licensing procedures in accordance with relevant regulations, and will be subject to administrative penalties for exporting without permission or exceeding the scope of the license. where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law.
Gallium and germanium are important rare metals that are widely used in semiconductor materials, new energy and other fields. Among them, the semiconductor industry has become the largest consumer of gallium, accounting for about 80% of the total consumption. Gallium nitride is one of the most representative third-generation semiconductor materials.
And these two metal minerals, both in terms of reserves and exports, China occupies a leading position in the world. Statistics show that China is the world's largest producer of gallium and germanium, with production exceeding about 90% and 68% respectively. Among them, Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, and the United States are the main export destinations.
China's announcement of the latest export control measures has also attracted the attention of the international community. On July 3, American semiconductor wafer manufacturer AXT announced that its Chinese subsidiary will immediately apply for a license to export gallium and germanium products, in order to continue to export related products from China.
Deutsche Welle reported that China's move will affect two key semiconductor metals**, which are expected to impact the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union.
The West believes that China's export controls on gallium and germanium-related items are a countermeasure to the export restrictions on chips from China by the United States and its allies, because a few days ago, the Netherlands just announced the implementation of semiconductor export controls.
In this regard, Huo Jianguo, former director of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that this is completely a "thief's heart" of Western countries. The United States, Japan and the Netherlands signed an agreement on China's chip manufacturing equipment, so any action by China now will be associated with a countermeasure.
Huo Jianguo stressed that the United States had adopted a series of restrictive measures against China on the grounds of ***, which not only violated WTO rules, but also violated international rules. However, our restriction is completely a conventional export control method, as long as the business operator's registration information is clearly disclosed, it will not be affected by the control. Therefore, the West is undoubtedly "pouring dirty water" on China.
Take a look at the news knews editor Zhou Wenfei).