Washington Tells Chipmakers to Submit Information by Nov. 8.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo

The U.S. government told semiconductor manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, TSMC and Intel, to submit their confidential information by Nov. 8. It mentioned that the demand is to find out the cause of the ongoing global chip shortage and the information includes client lists, inventory statuses and future production plans.

The U.S. government said that those companies may not reveal the information if they do not want to. However, it is likely to get the information anyway using the Defense Production Act of 1950 if it thinks necessary.

Those companies are perplexed. “The shortage resulted from the automotive chip shortage in the United States, Samsung Electronics is doing little business in this sector, and most of the sales of SK Hynix are derived from memory chips, which are in a state of oversupply,” said an industry insider, adding, “The U.S. government demanded information of companies in the entire industry under the circumstances, and this is difficult to understand.”
 

In the industry, client information is a top secret and disclosure of the information may seriously affect a wide variety of business activities. In addition, chip prices may be significantly affected by disclosure of inventory and production data. “Inventory data in the industry has been kept hidden for the purpose of price stabilization, which means the U.S. demand will lead to market fluctuations and more business difficulties,” the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade explained.


 

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