DECOUPLING: China Chip Firms Soar on Report of Advance in Fabrication Tech.

Beijing has pushed its firms for years to develop local technologies in sectors it deems of strategic importance, particularly those that Washington is targeting to contain its rival. Chipmaking gear is regarded as among the weakest links in China’s semiconductor supply chain, an area currently dominated by firms including ASML Holding NV and Tokyo Electron Ltd. The country’s top chipmakers, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. and Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd., all rely on foreign-made equipment.

ASML is the global leader in lithography machines, and gear that can support 28 nm chips is essential to making silicon for a spectrum of products from electric cars to missiles. The Netherlands, home to ASML, has joined a US-led effort to curb Beijing’s chip ambitions by banning the Dutch supplier from selling advanced chipmaking machines to China.

It’s unclear whether the Shanghai firm can deliver such machines in bulk.

The 28nm process that Shanghai Micro is trying to deliver was state of the art, briefly, in 2011.