Chip cooperation with Samsung expands

The nation’s top economic regulator signed an MoU with South Korea’s tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co Ltd for further cooperation, a month after it spoke to the company on chip price surge causing the government particular concern.

The memorandum of understanding signed on Friday focused on possible cooperation in chip making, artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing, but has nothing to do with the price rises of storage chips, said an official with the National Development and Reform Commission.

Samsung’s agreement with the Department of High-tech Industry will be positive for the industry, the official said.

The cooperation came after the NDRC spoke to the company in December after the prices of storage chips rose at an astonishing pace over the past 18 months, leading to complaints from mobile phone manufacturers.

Samsung, the world’s largest chipmaker, was the major beneficiary of the price rise. The company confirmed on Monday that it has inked an agreement with the NDRC, without elaborating further.

“The NDRC had earlier signed an agreement with the company for three years, so the current move is only an extension of the same,” said Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of the Mobile China Alliance.

The commission has yet to take any further steps on an antimonopoly review, but should the company be found to be engaged in such practices, the government may refer to the penalties issued by other nations, Wang said.

“Samsung’s cooperation Roger Sheng, with the Chinese government will not have an effect on the price hikes of storage chips, which is determined by the relationship between supply and demand,” said Roger Sheng, research director at consultancy Gartner Inc, adding that the government’s aim is to attract more foreign investment and boost technical collaboration.

“We do not rule out the possibility of Samsung establishing a dynamic random-access memory chip unit in China in the future,” said Sheng.

Currently, Samsung holds a monopoly position in the field of storage chips. It has built a NAND flash chip factory in Xi’an, Shaanxi province and plans to expand the manufacturing capacity with a $7 billion investment in the next three years.

Sheng added it is not likely that Samsung will transfer core technologies related to storage chips to China even if it invests in new factories here, and the domestic storage chip manufacturers still lag behind their South Korea competitor. trade between China and Mexico has driven the growth of the aviation market. The new direct route will also help improve the flight network from the Beijing Capital Internatioanl Airport.”

In 2008, Hainan Airlines launched its first direct flight to the United States between Beijing and Seattle. It offers the most direct flights between the two countries, including 12 routes from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, San Jose, Chicago, Boston and New York to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Changsha and other Chinese destinations.

“This and the preferred stock mechanism will make the State-owned assets more flexible,” said Li Jin, a researcher at the SOEs Reform and Development Center of Beijing-based Renmin University of China.

“It will increase the number of private capital in the SOEs and exchange management rights for capital,” said Li. “Such a system will benefit industries such as media that require flexible management but also need to comply with the government. If there are potential problems that threaten the country’s benefit, the preferred stock will have the right of one vote veto.”

“The concept of golden shares will benefit private and foreign capital and indeed it is an innovation,” he added.

Gao Zhiyu, deputy director-general of asset management bureau of SASAC, said that the country has made considerable progress in mixed ownership reforms of SOEs.

According to Gao, the achievements from the first two batches of SOEs that underwent the reforms are way beyond expectations.

By the end of 2017, seven of the 19 SOEs in the first two batches of reform have gained strategic investors or gone public after reforms or set up new companies. Over 40 investors were introduced to the SOEs with over 90 billion-yuan ($14.27 billion) capital, according to Gao.

Samsung’s cooperation with the Chinese government will not have an effect on the price hikes of storage chips.” research director at consultancy Gartner Inc