If Russia Invades Ukraine
Major Korean companies are on alert as the White House has told the U.S. semiconductor industry to be ready for new restrictions on exports to Russia if Moscow invades Ukraine.
The U.S. National Security Council (NSC) told executives of the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) to be ready for unprecedented actions against Russia if it attacks Ukraine, according to a Reuters report on Jan. 20
An SIA director reportedly emailed its member companies stating that the U.S. administration is "actively considering any and all options." SIA is an interest group that includes not only U.S. companies such as Intel and IBM but foreign chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and TSMC as members.
Semiconductor industry insiders believe that in the worst case, the U.S. government may apply the same restrictions to Russia as those it used against Huawei of China in September 2020. At the time, Washington banned the supply of semiconductors and chip production equipment manufactured using U.S. technology and equipment to Huawei.
At the time, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix could not export their chips to Huawei, one of their major customers, for a long period.
However, industry analysts say the impact will be limited because Russia is not as important as China in semiconductor value chains. However, Russia is still a big market with a population of 146 million, and a number of Korean companies are operating there. Samsung Electronics is Russia’s No. 1 smartphone company, and LG Electronics is the No. 1 player in the Russian premium home appliance market. They are paying much attention to the future moves of the United States.