Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Samsung set to follow TSMC to provide chip info to US
Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Hong Nam-ki speaks during a meeting on economic security at the government complex in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
As the Nov. 9 (14:00 KST) deadline set by the U.S. government approaches, Samsung Electronics is set to respond to requests from the U.S. Department of Commerce for semiconductor chip supply chain information, a top industry executive said, Monday.
The U.S. has requested that global semiconductor companies voluntarily submit key information about their business operations there.
But as widely expected, Samsung won't disclose highly classified and confidential information specifically about its “key customers,” in its soon-to-be-filed response to the U.S.'s request, the executive said.
On Monday afternoon, foundry chip king Taiwan's TSMC released its statement that it had submitted its answers to the questionnaire issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Of note is that TSMC didn't disclose any of its classified information.
Regarding the remark by the executive, a Samsung Electronics official said that the company is “closely communicating with the government regarding providing information to the U.S. government.”
Officials and industry sources said that the U.S. Department of Commerce accepted repeated requests by major chipmakers related to scaling down the information that it had been seeking. The chipmakers that have been requested to comply have been claiming that any release of client-related data will hurt its partnerships, which will bring a grave negative impact on their businesses.
The Department of Commerce's “wanted items” ― from chipmakers including Samsung, SK, TSMC as well as carmakers ― included sales numbers, inventories and lists of customers.
Washington elaborated that the request for information comes in response to the global chip supply shortage, which has caused severe production disruptions for major carmakers there. The U.S. said that the submission of such information should be voluntary, but Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned industry executives that her department may invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) or other available measures to enforce compliance.
As Korea is one of the leading semiconductor countries, local experts responded sensitively to the U.S. demand. They also urged the Korean government to ask Washington to prevent the information submitted by Korean companies from being used within the minimum range and leaked to third parties.
Another expert in Korea said that there is no need to over-interpret the U.S. government's demand for information disclosure.
“The purpose of the U.S. request for data seems to be more focused on checking the supply chain, related to the difficulties of carmakers struggling due to the shortage of semiconductors for vehicles, than to the semiconductor market itself,” said Kim Yang-paeng, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.
“The U.S. has a greater purpose of wanting to know where bottlenecks, such as the lack of automotive chips, occurred. It would be unreasonable to expand the scope to China. If China manufactures quality chips and has a lot of influence in the global market, we could talk about it, but China is positioned as a buyer or consumer of the supply chain in the chip industry,” the researcher added.
The South Korean government is directly and indirectly involved in discussions with senior U.S. government officials to limit the scope of the data disclosed, out of fears that any such disclosures could result in the leakage of proprietary secrets. South Korea is home to the world's top two memory chipmakers: Samsung and SK. Amid the protracted global semiconductor shortage, chips are considered a core national security item.
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki held high-profile meetings with senior U.S. government officials seeking to clarify Korea's stance. Industry Minister Moon Sung-wook is also set to visit Washington, D.C. this week. During his three-day trip starting Tuesday, the minister is scheduled to meet Raimondo and ask for increased cooperation in chip supply chain issues and with the Department of Commerce's information disclosure request.