China blames Netherlands for chip provide tensions amid Nexperia standoff | EUROtoday

China’s Commerce Ministry stated Tuesday that the Netherlands has precipitated “chaos” within the semiconductor provide chain that would threaten world auto manufacturing, even after Beijing allowed Nexperia’s Chinese unit to renew exports of its laptop chips.

China had blocked shipments of chips from Nexperia’s plant within the southern Chinese metropolis of Dongguan in response to the Dutch authorities’s seizure of Nexperia in late September.

The Netherlands cited nationwide safety issues in taking management of the corporate, which is owned by the Chinese firm Wingtech Technology. It additionally changed Nexperia’s Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng with interim CEO Stefan Tilger.

Nexperia’s Chinese unit stated in late October that its Netherlands headquarters had suspended provides of wafers used to make chips to its manufacturing facility in China, elevating issues over its means to ship completed semiconductors utilized by many automakers.

“That has created turmoil and chaos in the global semiconductor supply chain,” the Commerce Ministry stated in a press release Tuesday. “The Netherlands should bear full responsibility for this.”

The ministry accused the Netherlands of failing to help resolve the problem, saying it was “further escalating the semiconductor supply chain crisis.”

In late 2024, the U.S. put Wingtech Technology, on its “entity list” that it deemed to be appearing towards the U.S.’s nationwide safety pursuits, subjecting it to export controls.

In late September, the U.S. expanded the listing to incorporate Wingtech’s subsidiaries, together with Nexperia, and the Netherlands then took management of the corporate.

Global automakers together with Ford Motor have warned that China’s export restrictions on Nexperia’s semiconductors may disrupt automobile manufacturing.

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s assembly with Chinese chief Xi Jinping in South Korea final week, the White House stated China was shifting to ease the export ban on Nexperia semiconductors as a part of the newest commerce truce between Washington and Beijing.

The EU’s commerce commissioner Maroš Šefčovič stated in a submit Monday on X that the Dutch authorities and China have been intently coordinating and in “constructive engagement” concerning Nexperia.

The Netherlands stated final month it was prepared to discover a “constructive solution” with Chinese authorities to the Nexperia standoff after its economic affairs minister, Vincent Karremans, spoke by telephone with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao.

Nexperia was acquired in 2018 by partially state-owned Wingtech for $3.6 billion.

The Dutch ministry of economic affairs invoked its rarely used Goods Availability Act to effectively seize control of the company on Sept. 30. It said Nexperia’s governance “posed a threat to the continuity and safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities”.