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Tech war: Dutch chip manufacturing tool maker ASML still aims to expand China workforce, despite tighter US export restrictions
- ASML’s total employee headcount on the mainland reached more than 1,500 at the end of August, up from less than 500 in 2017
- The Dutch firm is expected to hire more than 200 new employees this year
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ASML Holding, which has a global monopoly in the supply of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems used to make advanced semiconductors, is on a trajectory to further expand its workforce in China, where its employee headcount has tripled over the past five years, according to the Dutch firm’s top executive on the mainland.
Shen Bo, ASML senior vice-president and country manager for China, confirmed on Tuesday that the company has grown the number of its local personnel to more than 1,500 as of the end of August, up from less than 500 in 2017, on the back of rapid business growth on the mainland, a development that was first reported last week by Chinese media Jiemian News.
ASML, which established its China operations in 2000, currently owns 12 office buildings in the country, where it is expected this year to hire more than 200 new employees, or 14 per cent of its local workforce, according to a Bloomberg report in June, despite rising tensions between Beijing and Washington.
While Shen did not address that complex geopolitical situation in his interview with Jiemian, ASML has seen early signs of revenue being switched from mainland China to other markets because of US government pressure on the firm to broaden an existing moratorium on sales of advanced chip-making systems to the country.
Mainland China’s share of ASML’s total sales of lithographic systems by value dropped to 10 per cent in the second quarter, down from 34 per cent in the first quarter, when the country was the Dutch firm’s largest single market.
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