Applied Materials Mum on Report It Halted Orders to Chinese LED Chipmaker

Applied Materials didn’t respond to queries Tuesday seeking comment on a Nikkei report the company ordered staff to suddenly stop doing business with customer Xiamen San'an Optoelectronics Friday, a day after the Chinese LED chipmaker appeared on a U.S. government “unverified list” of foreign entities. Applied supplies semiconductor production equipment and large-area deposition systems for LCD and OLED display manufacturing (see 1902150002). Xiamen San'an describes itself as China’s “largest LED epitaxial wafer and chip manufacturer, endeavoring to become top 1 in the global LED industry.” It was among 50 entities that Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added to the unverified list Thursday after the agency “could not verify their bona fides because an end-use check could not be completed satisfactorily for reasons outside the U.S. Government's control,” said a Federal Register notice. Under Export Administration regulations, “license exceptions” for exports, re-exports and in-country transfers involving a foreign party are “suspended” when that entity appears on the list, said the notice. Exporters doing business with a listed entity also must ask that trading partner for a statement acknowledging the listing before doing further commerce, it said. Efforts to reach Xiamen San'an, whose shares are listed on the Shanghai stock exchange, were unsuccessful Tuesday due to time zone differences.