Sony chip unit sees limited impact from recent export curbs to China

Sony is the world’s largest maker of image sensors widely used in smartphones and autos.

Shimizu said shipments of its security camera-related products could be affected by export curbs introduced by the United States in October, saying negative impact to its sales will likely exceed one billion yen ($7.47 million), but below 10 billion yen.

In comparison, the chip division expects its total sales to come to 1.42 trillion yen for the year ending March 31, 2023.

Shimizu said in an interview with Reuters that its microchip operations will likely be little affected by concerted export curbs to China agreed in January among the United States, Japan and the Netherlands as the division does not generally handle cutting-edge chips.

China opposition

Discover the stories of your interest

The China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA), the country’s top chip industry trade group, on Wednesday said it was against the reported export controls from the United States, Japan and the Netherlands.The restrictions, should they become a reality, “will cause serious harm to the semiconductor industry in China, with detriment to the global economy, as well as long-term damages to the interests of consumers worldwide,” the association said in a statement.

CSIA also called on the Chinese government to establish rules “for maintaining the healthy development of the global semiconductor industry ecology.”

The initial US sanctions took aim at Chinese purchases of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) computing chips, as well as equipment that chip factories could use to produce leading-edge computing chips.

Japan and the Netherlands are market leaders in the latter category. Both countries are the only producers of market-competitive lithography machines, which are a key component in the chip manufacturing process.