U.S. semiconductor company Applied Materials expects its fiscal year 2022 fourth quarter sales to drop by about $400 million due to new U.S. export controls on semiconductor technology sold in China (see 2210070049), the company said this month. The company said the change decreased its fourth quarter business outlook for net sales from $6.65 billion to $6.4 billion. “The revised net sales outlook reflects the impact of the new export regulations partially offset by supply chain performance improvements,” it said.

The Bureau of Industry and Security last week updated its “Don’t Let This Happen To You” guidance with new summaries and case examples of past export control investigations. The guidance now includes new case summaries of violations involving export controls against China, Russia, Iran and other countries.

The Bureau of Industry and Security's new sweeping set of export controls (see 2210070049) will “likely damage” the Chinese semiconductor and advanced computing industries and the U.S. and foreign companies that sell to those sectors, ArentFox said in an Oct. 10 alert. “While that was clearly the point of the new rule, we are expecting total chaos for a while,” the law firm said, adding that there is a “lot to unpack” in the 139-page rule.

The Bureau of Industry and Security should add China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. to the Entity List, China Tech Threat, an organization that advocates for stronger export controls on China, said in an Oct. 4 letter to BIS. The letter points to a potential partnership between Apple and YMTC (see 2209220022), which would “put U.S. and other foreign manufacturers out of business” and will allow China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to move closer to “achieving its objective of forcing companies to turn to China as their prime source for advanced technologies.”

Taiwan is “constantly” examining its export controls to make sure they’re capturing sensitive technologies, although it remains unclear if the controls will be discussed within its “Chip 4” alliance with the U.S., South Korea and Japan, a senior Taiwan official said this week. Chen Chern-chyi, Taiwan’s deputy economic affairs minister, said the four countries recently held a preparatory meeting for the alliance, but the group hasn’t yet set a formal agenda or scheduled an official first session, according to an Oct. 5 Nikkei report. He said the alliance is mainly “to work with our partners to form a resilient supply chain.”

Taiwanese companies are “highly concerned” about a potential overdependence on China’s economy and the possibility of a U.S.-China military conflict,” the Center for Strategic & International Studies said in a new report this week. Because of this, CSIS said, “there is significant support for expanding trade and investment ties” with the U.S. and for maintaining its technological edge through domestic investments and export controls.

The U.S. could issue new export controls on China, including restrictions on technologies used in high-performance computing and advanced semiconductors, as soon as this week, The New York Times reported Oct. 3. The report calls the new measures “some of the most significant steps taken by the Biden administration to cut off China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology,” adding they may include a “broad expansion” of the foreign direct product rule to cover additional Chinese firms.

The U.S. and Israel last week held the first meeting of a new forum that aims to increase collaboration on emerging technologies. The meeting resulted in a “workplan” that will help “manage risks to our respective technology ecosystems, including in research security, export controls, and investment screening,” the White House said. The next meeting of the U.S.-Israel Strategic High-Level Dialogue on Technology will be held in Israel in 2023, where the two countries “look forward to reviewing progress on cooperation.”

The U.S. and its allies should modernize the way they approach export controls and reboot regimes that have so far failed to keep China from acquiring sensitive technologies, said Mark Hewitt, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for corporate strategy. Martin, speaking during a Sept. 27 defense industry conference hosted by IDEEA, said many current export regimes are outdated.

The U.S. should consider new export controls on items used in rare earth magnet production, which could aid domestic rare earth producers, the Commerce Department said in a report this week. The report, part of a Section 232 investigation into the effects of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets on national security, said export controls could dissuade U.S. suppliers from shipping rare earths out of the U.S. The administration should “evaluate the use of export controls for domestic producers who face difficulties acquiring feedstocks from domestic sources due to competition with foreign consumers.”