{"slug": "do-chinas-export-curbs-on-tungsten-threaten-japans-ai-chip-supply-chain", "title": "Do China’s export curbs on tungsten threaten Japan’s AI chip supply chain?", "summary": "China's export curbs on tungsten have caused the price of tungsten hexafluoride, a critical gas for AI chip manufacturing, to triple year-on-year, threatening Japan's semiconductor supply chain. Japanese producers Showa Denko Kanto and Central Glass plan to suspend production in July due to dwindling inventories, potentially disrupting major chipmakers like Samsung Electronics and DB HiTek.", "body_md": "# Do China’s export curbs on tungsten threaten Japan’s AI chip supply chain?\n\nTungsten-based materials are widely used in semiconductor manufacturing, and recent supply constraints highlight growing vulnerabilities\n\n[Emma Ma](/author/emma-ma)in Shanghai\n\n[export controls on tungsten](https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3309650/addiction-chinas-tungsten-over-even-if-beijing-turns-tap-back-miner-says?module=inline&pgtype=article).\n\nThe price of tungsten hexafluoride has jumped more than 200 per cent year on year because of supply bottlenecks, coupled with rising chip demand, market data showed. The gas is a critical precursor in the semiconductor industry, where it is used to develop the microscopic connections inside advanced AI chips built on 3- to 7-nanometre processing nodes.\n\nThe latest available data on Tuesday showed the price of five-nines tungsten hexafluoride – meaning 99.999 per cent purity – stood at more than 1,700 yuan (US$251) per kg, triple that of a year earlier, according to ibuychem, a Guangzhou-based industry portal.\n\nShowa Denko Kanto and Central Glass – two major Japanese producers of specialty gases used in semiconductor manufacturing – were planning to suspend production in July as inventories dwindled, according to an earlier report by The Elec, an electronics industry media outlet in South Korea. The firms had notified major chip manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics and DB HiTek, of potential disruptions, according to the report.\n\n[Citic Securities](https://www.scmp.com/topics/citic-pacific?module=inline&pgtype=article)earlier this year, as the world’s second-largest economy dominated global reserves and production.\n\nTungsten powder – the raw material used to produce tungsten hexafluoride – accounted for more than 60 per cent of the gas’s production costs, the note’s authors said.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/do-chinas-export-curbs-on-tungsten-threaten-japans-ai-chip-supply-chain", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3356921/do-chinas-export-curbs-tungsten-threaten-japans-ai-chip-supply-chain?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-06-13 07:00:06+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-13 07:03:26.668051+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-chips", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Showa Denko Kanto", "Central Glass", "Samsung Electronics", "DB HiTek", "Citic Securities", "China", "Japan"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/do-chinas-export-curbs-on-tungsten-threaten-japans-ai-chip-supply-chain", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/do-chinas-export-curbs-on-tungsten-threaten-japans-ai-chip-supply-chain.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/do-chinas-export-curbs-on-tungsten-threaten-japans-ai-chip-supply-chain.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/do-chinas-export-curbs-on-tungsten-threaten-japans-ai-chip-supply-chain.jsonld"}}