Asian chip stocks mostly rise, shrugging off new U.S. semiconductor export curbs on China

Major Asian chip stocks outside of China rose Tuesday, shrugging off a new round of U.S. semiconductor export curbs aimed at impairing Beijing’s capability to produce certain high-end chips.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company — the world’s largest contract chip supplier — saw shares rise 2.4%.

Several Japanese chip-related stocks also gained. Tokyo Electron rose 4.7%, Lasertec climbed 6.7%, Advantest gained 3.9% and Renesas Electron advanced 2.2%.

Japanese technology conglomerate Softbank, which owns a stake in British chip designer Arm, saw its shares rise 3.6%.

The Biden administration’s latest chip curbs will also target sales of high-bandwidth memory chips, which could affect the world’s two largest memory chip makers — South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung.

Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, however, rose 0.9% and 1.8%, respectively. 

Derrick Irwin, portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia,” on Tuesday that the high-bandwidth memory controls would impact South Korean players to a degree.

“Although our belief is that the impact and sales of high bandwidth memory chips into China are reasonably small from these players in the scheme of things, and they’ll probably be able to shift that demand into the U.S. and other markets,” he said.

The Department of Commerce announced on Monday that it was curbing semiconductor exports to 140 new companies in its latest effort to limit China’s ability to access cutting edge chip technology that could be used for advancing its military capabilities.

Naura Technology Group, Piotech and ACM Research were among the largest Chinese companies to be included in the export controls list.

Shares of Naura Technology and ACM Research fell 3% and 1%, respectively, in China while Piotech rose 1%. China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, fell 1.5% in Hong Kong.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said Monday that the new export controls were the “culmination of the Biden-Harris Administration’s targeted approach to impair the PRC’s ability to indigenize the production of advanced technologies that pose a risk to our national security.” 

In addition to the entities added, the latest U.S. restrictions include new controls on 24 types of manufacturing equipment and three types of software tools used for developing semiconductors. 

Last month, the effectiveness of U.S. chip restrictions had been thrown into question when it was reported that a chip made by TSMC had been found in a Huawei product. 

The latest export restrictions include a new “red flag guidance” to address compliance concerns, and several “critical regulatory changes” to enhance the effectiveness of existing controls.