U.S. chip curbs hit China harder than expected as TSMC treads carefully

TAIPEI — The latest U.S. export controls on China’s chip sector are causing more disruption than the industry expected, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. takes an extremely cautious approach to ensure compliance, sources briefed on the matter said.

TSMC, the world’s top contract chipmaker, has been informing Chinese customers that use the company’s 16-nanometer or better production technologies that it cannot ship orders to them unless they use chip packaging services from a supplier on a U.S. “white list” of approved businesses, two people told Nikkei Asia.