An icon of ASML is displayed on a smartphone, with an ASML chip seen within the background.

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The Dutch authorities on Friday introduced it’s increasing export restrictions on superior semiconductor manufacturing gear, bringing licensing necessities of ASML‘s machines beneath its purview.

The adjustments imply that the Netherlands is successfully taking up from the U.S. on controlling what machines ASML is ready to export to different nations.

Like different nations, the Netherlands sees such curbs as a key nationwide safety requirement.

“I’ve made this determination for causes of safety. We see that technological advances have given rise to elevated safety dangers related to the export of this particular manufacturing gear, particularly within the present geopolitical context,” Reinette Klever, minister of international commerce and growth for the Netherlands, mentioned in a press release.

ASML mentioned in a separate assertion Friday that the most recent measures from the federal government mark a “technical change” that aren’t anticipated to have any impression on its monetary outlook for 2024 or for its “longer-term situations.”

The expanded management comes after the Dutch authorities last year introduced its first main export restrictions on superior semiconductor gear exports.

ASML, one of the most important semiconductor companies in the world, is headquartered within the Netherlands. The agency makes equipment that’s required to supply essentially the most superior chips.

The nation’s newest strikes come after the U.S. on Friday rolled out new export controls on essential applied sciences, together with quantum computing and semiconductor items.

In late 2022, the U.S. launched sweeping rules aiming to chop off exports of key chips and semiconductor instruments to China and sought to get allied nations to observe swimsuit. Washington has pressured nations just like the Netherlands and others to ramp up export curbs on key chipmaking instruments. ASML’s essential position in superior chips has made the Netherlands a key focus for U.S. policymakers.

In its newest assertion, the federal government didn’t identify any particular nations that might be of explicit focus for the chip restrictions, stating as a substitute that the principles apply to exports from the Netherlands to locations outdoors of the European Union.

“The Netherlands has a singular, main place on this space. This entails sure duties, which we take severely. The Dutch semiconductor trade must know what it will probably anticipate. We’ve got proceeded in a cautious and focused method, in order to minimise the disruption to international commerce flows and worth chains,” Klever mentioned.

ASML instruments require Dutch licenses

ASML makes two varieties of instruments – an excessive ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine and a deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machine.

EUV lithography machines, that are utilized by chipmakers similar to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, are required to supply essentially the most cutting-edge chips.

DUV lithography machines are used to fabricate different varieties of semiconductors like reminiscence chips, which go into every little thing from laptops to telephones.

Each units of machines have been introduced beneath Dutch authorities curbs final 12 months. ASML mentioned the rule adjustments on Friday imply its TWINSCAN NXT:1970i and 1980i DUV immersion lithography programs will now require a license from the Dutch authorities to be exported, somewhat than from Washington.

Clarification: this story has been up to date to make clear the Dutch’s authorities’s expanded export licensing regime.



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