Dutch chipmaker Nexperia urges Chinese units to help restore supply chain

Dutch chipmaker Nexperia, whose supply chain was broken up when the Dutch government took over the company in September, urged its Chinese units in an open letter on Thursday to help restore normal production.

Nexperia’s Dutch unit said in an open letter that it had made repeated and multiple attempts to restore dialogues but has failed to receive a response from its Chinese units.

Nexperia makes billions of simple but ubiquitous chips for cars and other electronics and shortages have threatened automotive supply chains, leading to production slowdowns and halts.

It manufactures most of its wafers in Hamburg, Germany, and then sends them to Dongguan, China to be packaged and sent on to customers.

The Dutch government, on September 30, took control of Nexperia, which is headquartered in the Netherlands but owned by China’s Wingtech, saying the move was necessary to prevent the company’s former CEO from moving European operations to China from its current base in the Netherlands.

In response, Beijing halted exports of Nexperia’s finished products on October 4, a measure it has since partly relaxed.

Separately, Nexperia’s Chinese arm declared itself no longer subject to control by European management after the seizure and on October 26, the European side of the company stopped shipping wafers to it, citing non-payment.

On Wednesday, China pushed for a company-led resolution following a call between China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao and EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic.

“Nexperia B.V. has made repeated and multiple attempts, both formal and informal, to re-establish the dialogue with Nexperia’s entities in China by means of direct outreach via calls, emails and proposed meetings,” Nexperia’s open letter stated.

“Regrettably, Nexperia did not receive any meaningful response,” it added.