Some Relief
It has been confirmed that the products manufactured by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in their plants in China eluded high-rate tariffs imposed on Chinese products by the US government. It is said that the two companies have deviated from the striking distance of the measure, but it cannot be ruled out that the two companies may be indirectly affected by the measure due to tariffs on electronic products loaded with semiconductors produced in China and a compromise about semiconductors between the US and China.
According to the semiconductor industry on April 5, ten items including transistors, thyristors, and light emitting diodes (LEDs) were semiconductor-related items among 1300 Chinese items subject to high tariffs announced by the US Trade Representative (USTR) on April 3 (local time). These items on this list produced in the HS code format according to the International Uniform Product Classification System, are all non-memory semiconductors.sung Electronics is producing NAND flash memory products at its Xian factory in China and SK Hynix, DRAM memory products at its Wuxi factory in China. As of last year, Samsung Electronics produced 450,000 NAND flashes per month in terms of wafers. It is said that the Xian factory rolled out 102,000 pieces, 22.7% of them.
It is estimated that SK Hynix produce 130,500 pieces, or 44.2% of 297,500 DRAMs produced monthly at its Wuxi factory.
"The USRT list does not have a code for items produced by Korean companies in China," a semiconductor industry official said. "At least this time, there will be no damage due to duties directly slapped on such items."
However, semiconductor industry experts point out that a significant portion of the semiconductors produced by the two factories belong to China's finished electronic products which will hardly avoid indirect impacts. As China is reported to be in the process of negotiating with the United States to expand US semiconductor imports, there is a possibility that semiconductor exports to China by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will fall proportionally.