The purchases are believed to embrace high-end gear from Dutch tech big ASML, which makes superior lithography machines wanted to take advantage of intricate microchips.
Imports of those machines into China greater than quadrupled on the finish of 2023, reaching a record $2.7bn.
Britain’s complete exports of semiconductor manufacturing gear to China totalled round $314.6m final yr, regardless of the Government blocking dozens of export licences.
The UK is a comparatively small participant in exporting semiconductor manufacturing gear however nonetheless sells overseas via corporations equivalent to SPTS and Oxford Instruments, which make machines for processing semiconductor wafers.
Data from the Department for Trade reveals that 27 licence purposes for exporting semiconductor manufacturing gear to China have been refused in the primary six months of final yr. Just six have been issued and one licence was revoked.
The figures have been in stark distinction to the prior yr, when it had issued 11 licences and refused simply two.
The $315m of apparatus exported to China final yr was down from the $353m in 2022, however greater than double what was bought to the nation in 2019, in accordance to figures from China’s General Administration of Customs.
The US has blocked gross sales of superior chips, equivalent to these made by Nvidia for synthetic intelligence purposes, to China.
This has led the nation to make investments billions into its home trade, though it’s nonetheless seen as years behind the most-advanced chipmaking services, that are primarily in Taiwan.