🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

US controls have weighed on South Korea’s chip exports, especially memory

• Research found South Korea’s semiconductor exports to China and Hong Kong fell after the October 2022 U.S. export controls, with the sharpest drop in memory chips and some standalone categories 1.
• The paper estimates South Korea’s semiconductor exports to China dropped about 13.7% after October 2022 1.
• Memory was hit harder. Exports fell about 31.9% and unit prices dropped about 34.6%, which the paper reads as a shift toward lower-value products 1.
• China, including Hong Kong, took about 72% of South Korea’s memory chip exports in 2022, leaving the sector exposed 1.

South Korea is navigating competing export-control regimes

• The forum aims to help companies deal with tighter U.S. controls 2.
• Many allies do not have U.S. tools like the Foreign Direct Product Rule, which applies controls to some foreign-made goods that use U.S. technology 2.
• They also lack the Entity List, a U.S. restriction list for named groups and companies 2.
• CSIS said the U.S. could extend Foreign Direct Product Rule limits to allied products without aligned controls, including South Korean chipmaking equipment or High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), a type of advanced memory used in AI systems 2.
• Seoul is also holding separate talks with Beijing on supplies of rare earths and other minerals 3.
• That leaves semiconductor, AI, plus quantum companies facing changing rules for technology trade and supply chains 2.