According to yonhap News Agency, South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix confirmed on November 9 that the two companies submitted their chip business information to the US government on the afternoon of November 8 (local time). But neither company handed over sensitive information such as customer data, the report said.
Samsung reportedly omitted inventory information and marked all documents as confidential documents that cannot be disclosed to the public. Samsung explained that it omitted the customer information after consulting with the U.S. Department of Commerce because it cannot be disclosed due to the confidentiality clause of the contract. SK Hynix has classified some of the data as confidential and provided the inventory data by car, mobile phone and computer only. SK said that the company submitted the data considering various circumstances under the premise of maintaining mutual trust with customers.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has ordered global chip companies to provide 26 items of supply chain information, including chip inventory, order details, product sales, and customer information, by November 8 in the name of improving supply chain transparency.
The Asian Business Daily reported on August 8 that although the U.S. recently relaxed its requirements for companies to provide information by industry category, such as automobile, mobile phone and computer, without specifying the names of customers, there is still a possibility of infringement of trade secrets. According to the report, manufacturers such as TSMC and Micron did not disclose specific data when it came to customer information, inventory and sales. Industry insiders believe that south Korean companies will refer to these practices and exclude sensitive information before replying to the US government.
Will the U.S. government demand additional information from global semiconductor companies? According to the Hankyoreh Newspaper on August 8, the data submitted by major companies revealed that some companies did not disclose the top three customers in terms of sales volume, while others reported only the percentage of companies using products by industry, rather than the specific transactions of semiconductor products by customers, which was originally requested by the U.S. Experts say that while the U.S. has yet to make clear what kind of sanctions it might take, companies will not turn over their most important trade secrets. However, if the U.S. government considers the data submitted to be insufficient, it will continue to put pressure on them.
