BRUSSELS — The European Union Commission on Thursday (April 24) imposed 33 percent import duties on DRAMs made by South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc., according to reports from Dow Jones.
The decision follows a ruling by the U.S. Commerce Department, which earlier this month announced its preliminary decision to impose a 57.37 percent countervailing duty on imported DRAMs of troubled Hynix (see April 1 story ).
Today's ruling here was expected for weeks (see March 21 story ). In March, European authorities indicated that Hynix had been receiving illegal state aid. Debt-ridden Hynix has been subject to repeated bail-out plans from its creditors, which include South Korean state-run banks.
The illegal state aid enabled Hynix to sell chips at prices below the cost of production, according to the report. Meanwhile, the European Union said it would not place tariffs on memory chips from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., according to the report.
The case against Hynix was originally brought before European regulators by Infineon Technologies AG, paralleling a move by Micron Technology Inc. to get Hynix imports into the United States examined by the U.S. International Trade Commission.
DRAM makers from Taiwan and Japan are mulling over a similar move to file charges, reportedly including Nanya Technology Inc. and Elpida Memory Inc.
Hynix has repeatedly denied the charges. However, officials from Hynix in March said the company has several options to continue to ship its DRAMs to European OEMs and system firms.
Hynix could ship DRAMs to contract manufacturers in other parts of the world who make products for European system makers, which would not be covered by the EC-levied penalty tariffs. They also said Hynix could ship DRAMs to Europe from its U.S. fab in Eugene, Ore., which wasn't a part of the European countervailing duty probe.
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