In a rare case: a Chinese semiconductor company achieved exclusion from the US sanctions list

This year did not start very well for the Chinese lithography equipment manufacturer AMEC, as it was included in the so-called “black list” of the Pentagon, suspected of serving the interests of the Chinese defense sector. The Chinese company decided to challenge this step in August, and filed a complaint directly with a court of American jurisdiction. Justice was restored this month.

Image source: AMEC

The presence of AMEC on this list technically only threatened difficulties with concluding contracts with American companies, but after filing a lawsuit against the US Department of Defense in August of this year, the Chinese manufacturer achieved its exclusion from this list by the end of the year. These favorable changes immediately affected the AMEC share price, which rose by 5.8% on Wednesday morning. Moreover, the event, which is not entirely familiar to modern realities, also caused an increase in the quotes of other shares placed in Shanghai by 1% on average.

Tellingly, the Chinese memory manufacturer YMTC is a major AMEC client and is also on the Pentagon’s “black list” because it is suspected of having ties to the Chinese military sector. YMTC has repeatedly brushed aside such reproaches, but has not tried to challenge its status in court, unlike AMEC. The Pentagon is trying to limit the access of Chinese companies to American technologies, using its own requirements, and other US departments, including the Department of Commerce, are also doing this.