Advertisement
China-EU relations
China

China’s soaring Dutch imports signal stockpiling of ASML kit ahead of US-backed export controls

  • Dutch shipments to China rose by 29.5 per cent in October, compared to an overall decline in EU-China trade
  • Data shows effort to source from ASML ‘before the drawbridge gets pulled up’, says one analyst

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
14
ASML is Europe’s most valuable tech company. Photo: Reuters
Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels
China’s imports from the Netherlands soared in October, in what is seen as further evidence of Chinese stockpiling of hi-tech chipmaking equipment before export controls on the products take effect in January.
Chinese customs data released on Tuesday showed that despite a broad-based decline in trade between the European Union and China, Dutch shipments rose by 29.5 per cent last month, compared to a year earlier.

Detailed data released later this month will show another huge splurge on advanced photolithography machines made by Europe’s most valuable tech company ASML, analysts predict.

Recognised as the world leader in the lithography machines that print the finest of patterns onto the most advanced and smallest microchips, ASML is one of the most important nodes in the chip supply chain. In recent years it has become the focus of a geopolitical tussle.

01:56

Biden to introduce new restrictions on US investments in China, declares tech ‘emergency’

Biden to introduce new restrictions on US investments in China, declares tech ‘emergency’

“The stunning surge in Chinese imports from the Netherlands over the past few months is a result of Beijing’s buying spree of Dutch chip machinery company ASML before the drawbridge gets pulled up,” said Sander Tordoir, a senior economist at the Centre for European Reform.

Advertisement