纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英夹在中美芯片战之间韩国半导体巨头进退两难

Samsung and SK Hynix, the semiconductor titans of South Korea, have spent over $52 billion to build up their operations in China. Business with China has long made up a sizable portion of their sales.

韩国半导体巨头三星和SK海力士为了在中国发展业务已斥资逾520亿美元。长期以来，中国业务占到这两家企业销售额的相当大一部分。

But the ties between South Korea’s chip companies and China are under strain from geopolitics.

但韩国芯片企业与中国的关系正面临着地缘政治的压力。

South Korea, which relies heavily on its semiconductor sector for jobs and revenue, is wedged between China and the United States, South Korea’s longstanding ally, in their trade war over technology.

韩国的就业与营收严重依赖半导体行业。在其长期盟友美国与中国的科技贸易战中，韩国陷入了进退两难的处境。

To curb China’s access to advanced chips that could power its military, Washington has escalated steps to control the sale of such technologies. The Biden administration imposed restrictions last October, raising alarms in Seoul and setting off furious lobbying in Washington to try to minimize damage to South Korea’s semiconductor industry.

为了阻碍中国获得可用于军事目的的先进芯片，美国政府逐渐扩大了对此类技术销售的限制。拜登政府去年10月采取的限制措施引起了韩国政府的担心，它在华盛顿极力游说，试图尽量减少对其半导体行业的损害。

A one-year waiver the companies received in mid-October 2022 that temporarily exempted them from the export rules is set to expire soon. While a new waiver is widely expected to be extended, uncertainty surrounds how long it might last.

这两家公司在2022年10月中旬获得了为期一年的豁免，让它们暂时不受美国出口管制的限制，但豁免期限将至。虽然人们普遍预期新的豁免将延长期限，但对豁免能延续多久存在不确定性。

“Geopolitical issues have become the biggest risk for companies to manage,” South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said in June, speaking at a meeting of government officials and business executives about a national semiconductor strategy. “Companies cannot resolve this problem alone,” he said, calling the competition over chips an “all-out war.”

“地缘政治问题已成为企业需要应对的最大风险，”韩国总统尹熙悦今年6月在政府官员和企业高管就国家半导体战略举行的会议上发表讲话时说。“公司无法独自解决这个问题，”他说，并把围绕芯片的竞争称为一场“全面战争”。

Manufacturing semiconductors requires supply chains that cross national borders, and the efforts to impose new rules on the industry have tested commercial alliances in Asia, Europe and the United States. But few countries have wrestled with the potential economic disruption from trade restrictions as much as South Korea.

半导体制造需要跨国界的供应链，对该行业实施新规则的努力给亚洲、欧洲和美国的商业联盟带来了考验。但很少有国家像韩国那样，在应对贸易限制带来的潜在经济破坏上绞尽脑汁。

China is not only a big customer of chips made in South Korea. Both Samsung and SK Hynix have major production facilities in China.

中国不只是韩国芯片的大客户。三星和SK海力士在中国都有大型生产设施。

Semiconductors account for 20 percent of South Koreas exports. Samsung and SK Hynix have long dominated the market for memory chips, which are used in smartphones and laptops to store data. Samsung sold 36 percent of all memory chips and SK Hynix 25 percent as of June, according to data calculated from TrendForce, a market research firm.

半导体占韩国出口的20%。长期以来，三星和SK海力士主导着存储芯片市场，智能手机和笔记本电脑的数据存储采用的就是这类芯片。按照市场研究公司集邦科技的数据所做的计算，截至今年6月，三星的存储芯片占全球销量的36%，SK海力士占25%。

Over the past decade, China has received more than half — at one point almost 67 percent — of South Korean chip exports. That number dropped to 55 percent last year, according to a calculation of South Korean government data by The New York Times.

在过去十年，韩国芯片出口量的一半以上（一度接近67%）销往中国。据《纽约时报》用韩国政府数据做的计算，这个数字去年下降到了55%。

Samsung does not provide semiconductor sales numbers for China. Partly because of a drop in demand for chips and China’s economic slowdown, two of the company’s chip-related subsidiaries in China that disclosed their financial information showed a 35 percent fall in sales of chips and displays in the first half of this year.

三星不提供在华半导体销售数据。三星在中国的两家与芯片有关的子公司披露的财务信息显示，今年上半年的芯片和显示器销售额下降了35%，部分原因是芯片需求下降和中国经济放缓。

SK Hynix’s share of revenue from China peaked at nearly 47 percent in 2019. It shrank to 27 percent last year, still an important part of the company’s business.

SK海力士来自中国的营收份额在2019年达到近47%的峰值。虽然这一数字已在去年缩水至27%，但仍是该公司业务的一个重要组成部分。

“To give up the large market that is China? We won’t be able to recover,” Chey Tae-won, SK Hynix’s chairman, said at a news conference in July.

“放弃中国这个大市场？我们是没法弥补缺口的，”SK海力士的董事长崔泰源今年7月的新闻发布会上说。

One of the most outspoken South Korean politicians on the issue is Yang Hyang-ja, a lawmaker in the National Assembly and a former Samsung executive. She called the country “a victim” in the trade dispute and proposed tax cuts to help chip makers. Her bill, called the K-Chips Act, was passed in March.

在这个问题上最直言不讳的韩国政界人士之一是国会议员、三星前高管梁香子。她称韩国是美中贸易争端的“受害者”，并提出了用减税来帮助芯片制造商的议案。这个名为《K-Chips法》的议案已于今年3月在国会获得通过。

“We are taking a direct hit,” she said.

“我们正在受到直接打击，”她说。

Samsung uses its facilities in China to produce 40 percent of its NAND chips, one of two kinds of memory chips that help devices store data. SK Hynix produces 30 percent of its NAND chips in China and almost half of its DRAM chips, which enable short-term storage for personal computers and servers.

三星40%的NAND芯片（帮助设备存储数据的两种存储芯片之一）由其在华工厂生产。SK海力士30%的NAND芯片和近一半的DRAM芯片在华生产，后者用于个人计算机和服务器的短期存储。

The companies’ exposure to China is a challenge, said Avril Wu, a senior research vice president at TrendForce. “It’s not easy to withdraw, yet continuing to invest further is unwise, as nobody knows what might happen in the future,” she said.

这些公司在中国的业务是一个挑战，集邦科技的高级研究副总裁吴雅婷说。 “退出不容易，但继续进一步投资不明智，因为没有人知道未来会发生什么，”她说。

Samsung said in a statement that its investments were made to address the needs of global customers and other demands.

三星在一份声明中表示，公司投资是为了满足全球客户需求和其他要求。

Samsung and SK Hynix are not alone in facing uncertainty caused by the China-U.S. tensions. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chip maker, is also waiting to hear from the U.S. Department of Commerce on the fate of their waivers to the export controls.

受中美紧张局势带来的不确定性影响的企业不只有三星和SK海力士。全球最大的芯片制造商台积电也在等待美国商务部对其出口管制豁免申请的决定。

The Commerce Department declined to comment but referred to a statement by Don Graves, deputy Commerce secretary, who said during a trip to Korea last week that the United States would “do everything” it can to ensure companies could continue their businesses.

美国商务部拒绝置评，只是让记者去看商务部副部长唐·格雷夫斯上周访问韩国时发表的声明，当时格雷夫斯说，美国将“尽一切努力”确保企业能够继续开展业务。

For Samsung and SK Hynix, a waiver of a year or less could slow the companies’ development, experts said.

专家表示，对三星和SK海力士来说，一年或更短时间的豁免可能会拖累公司的发展。

Advances in chip-making move swiftly and companies must invest in equipment, parts and research to stay competitive. The bulky facilities that manufacture chips cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.

芯片制造技术进步的速度很快，公司必须靠投资设备、零部件和研发才能保持竞争力。制造芯片的庞大设施造价高达数千万乃至数亿美元。

“Rather than wondering what will happen year by year, extending the waiver by two to three years at a time would make people more at ease,” said Lim Hyung-kyu, a retired Samsung executive who worked at the company for over three decades as an engineer and its chief technology officer.

“与其让公司一年一年地对此忧心忡忡，不如将豁免一次延长为两到三年，这会让人更放心，”已退休的三星高管林亨奎（音）说，他曾在三星工作三十多年，当过工程师和首席技术官。

No matter the outcome of the waiver decision in Washington, the U.S. export controls and inclination to contain China’s tech supply chain could force Samsung and SK Hynix to change their business strategies in China.

无论美国政府对豁免延期做出怎样的决定，美国的出口管制和限制中国技术供应链的意向都可能迫使三星和SK海力士改变其在华业务战略。

One possibility, said Song Myung-sup, a semiconductor analyst at Hi Investment & Securities, is that the companies could use their factories in China to serve customers in China. They could also shift the focus of their production on less advanced products, he said, to avoid the U.S. restrictions.

一种可能性是，这些公司可以依靠其中国工厂为中国客户服务，Hi Investment & Securities的半导体分析师宋明叶（音）说。他表示，这些公司还可将中国工厂的主要生产转向不太先进的产品，以避免美国的限制。

Already, the uncertainties surrounding the curbs, as well as a short-term slump in demand for chips, has stalled the construction of a SK Hynix plant in the Chinese city of Dalian, according to Mr. Song. Neither SK Hynix nor Samsung has plans at the moment to invest more in China, he said.

宋明叶说，限制措施带来不确定性和芯片需求的短期骤降已导致SK海力士在中国大连建设的一家工厂停建。他说，SK海力士和三星目前都没有在华增资计划。

SK Hynix said the construction of its Dalian factory is going as planned but that it has reduced its previously outlined capital spending this year.

SK海力士表示，其大连工厂的建设正在按计划进行，但已减少了此前制定的本年度投资计划。

In turn, the South Korean government has said it will expand its domestic chip-making capacity over the long term by creating a semiconductor “mega-cluster” in Yongin, a 40-minute drive from a gigantic Samsung chip manufacturing campus. Samsung has said it would invest $228 billion over the next two decades.

相应地，韩国政府表示正在为扩大国内的芯片制造能力做长远考虑，在龙仁市建一个半导体“巨型园区”，龙仁市距离三星的一个庞大芯片制造园区只有40分钟的车程。三星表示将在未来20年的时间里投资2280亿美元。

Separately, SK Hynix last year vowed to make a $11 billion investment in a new plant in South Korea that it has started to build.

另外，SK海力士去年曾承诺投资110亿美元在韩国建一座新的半导体制造厂，这家工厂的建设已经开始。

The restrictions on business with China and promises of U.S. government incentives are also spurring more investment in the United States. Samsung said it will spend $17 billion on a facility in Taylor, Texas, while SK Hynix has pledged $15 billion for an American chip-packaging plant and a research center, and is in search of a location for the plant.

在中国的业务受到限制，加上美国政府承诺的激励措施也刺激了韩国公司在美国进行更多投资。三星称将投资170亿美元在得克萨斯州泰勒市建厂，SK海力士则承诺投资150亿美元在美国建一家芯片封装厂和一个研究中心，目前正在为工厂选址。

For South Korea, there is the risk of economic retaliation from China for aligning itself too closely with the United States.

对韩国来说，与美国过于紧密地结盟，有遭到中国经济报复的风险。

South Korea waited almost a year before reluctantly joining an initiative proposed by President Biden last year to form a semiconductor “Chip 4” alliance with the United States, Japan and Taiwan.

韩国等了将近一年才勉强同意了拜登总统去年提出的与美国、日本和台湾组成半导体“Chip 4”联盟的倡议。

Ms. Yang, the South Korean lawmaker, said the U.S.-China tech rivalry is destined to change the global supply chain for chip making. South Korea must accept that reality, she said.

韩国议员梁香子说，美中技术竞争注定会改变芯片制造的全球供应链。她说韩国必须接受这个现实。

But she worries about the pressure it will put on South Korea, using a common idiom that described her country in relation to two superpowers. “The shrimp’s back may burst in a fight between whales,” she said.

但她担心这将给韩国带来压力，她用了一句韩国谚语来形容韩国与这两个超级大国之间的关系。“鲸鱼打架，虾背开花，”她说。