ASML orders boom but export restrictions could hamper growth Chipmaking kit maker ASML grew 30 percent last year and the order book more than tripled in calendar Q4 as customers rushed to invest in new tools - yet the business remains cautious for 2024 amid stringent export restrictions. The Dutch operation – which is still the only company in the world that makes extreme ultraviolet ( …
It isn't that so much as the fact that a lot of US made parts and materials go into the equipment they sell. There are hundreds of companies that either directly (or indirectly in a secondhand or thirdhand manner) make parts and materials that go into them.
So the US can "twist their arm" because they could prevent those US companies from selling stuff to ASML. They could probably work around that, eventually, but it would take a few years and the US and EU's position on China isn't all that far apart anyway.
Enemy states of the US are typically also the enemies of Europe and generally more dangerous due to proximity and fragmentation of the centres of power.
The EU should create economic environment where its local businesses could develop and expand chip making facilities.
We all know that shifting manufacturing to Asia (out of sight out of mind) has massively backfired and undermined development and prospects of the EU economies.
The noises coming from some of the big semis firms is hopeful as people have come to the realisation that the shortage of a $2 chip means you can't sell your $50-100k cars. The plans for Europe also look a little more sensible than the money grab currently going on in the USA.
Yeah the zero inventory models for just in time manufacturing work great so long as world trade isn't disrupted by shipping issues (like covid, Evergrand, Panama drought and now Suez troubles) or black swan events like a pandemic, even aside from changing international relations.
Or an automaker assumes they can order parts whenever they want so they cancel orders when their market temporarily dries up, and then is surprised to learn someone else took their order slots and they are now on a waiting list for getting their $2 chips made.
>We all know that shifting manufacturing to Asia (out of sight out of mind) has massively backfired and undermined development and prospects of the EU economies.
Yes ASML would have been much better off if Intel and TI had been forced to manufacture chips at home with their own US built steppers and Japanese makers had been forced to use Canon and Nikon
Then ASML could have profitably supplied Philips alone
If the west refuses to deal with countries with poor human rights records - which tend to be poorer countries - how can things ever get better there?
The calculation was that dealing with China which was for several decades moving in more of a capitalistic direction would encourage them to continue moving along that path, and over time would (as the US, UK and so on did in their past as they became richer) work to remedy such human rights abuses. The problem was that China got a leader who decided to consolidate power for himself and go in a different path, and started backtracking on the previous tentative embrace of capitalism (not going back to communism, but doubling down on the authoritarianism)
Now if you realize that those countries have no intention of changing, and may indeed be on a path where that human rights record gets worse rather than better, then you have to accept that that previous calculation was in error (or wasn't but the facts on the ground changed) and isolating them becomes the plan. Not that that has had much of a record of success - not with countries like North Korea where the west never had any involvement, or like Iran where they used to but have little today, or like Russia where they used to but are mostly removed. A "decoupling" from China isn't possible for decades (or realistically, never, due to their size) because of how interdependent the two economies are, so these types of sanctions are about the best you can do - and in the long run may not help. But other than dealing with them as an equal partner and decoupling/isolating, the only other alternative that might result in them improving human rights over the long run is war and regime change, which is not possible where China is concerned.
It's not about that.
The West has created policies that afford workers a great deal of employment rights (which got eroded in the last couple of years, but I digress) and high taxes to (at least in theory) provide for good safety nets. This is of course costly, so big corporations found a loop hole. Why not abuse workers overseas, like say in China, pay peanuts and make massive profits then tell people "look the other way and don't worry the wealth is going to trickle down anytime soon!".
But that gave people false sense of security (what's the point having all those employment rights if there is no jobs) and created barriers to enter the market for smaller businesses and created inequality.
Now we have corporations too big to fail that dictate what democratically elected governments can or cannot do instead of doing what the public wants and also a few states that became rich and soon may be our enemy.
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