“There is a feeling that the Dutch government did not sufficiently defend ASML and that it gave in to American pressure and restricted ASML because the Americans wanted it to,” said Tobias Gehrke, a senior policy researcher at the European Union. . Council on Foreign Relations.
Yet analysts doubt whether any single European country would be able to withstand this type of pressure. “ASML is too big for the Netherlands,” says Rob de Wijk, founder of the Center for Strategic Studies in The Hague. “This is a power game and countries, including Germany, are simply too small for this game.” Instead, he is part of a growing contingent – including ASML’s outgoing CEO – who are calling for export licensing for strategic sectors to be managed by the European Union to protect companies like ASML from pressures between the superpowers. “Let Brussels do this and let them do power politics.”
ASML’s Fouquet will likely be less concerned about export restrictions shrinking his market; ASML’s shipments to China represented a record 49% of total sales according to the company’s latest results, released on April 17. But company executives fear that U.S. actions could prompt China to invest in potential ASML competitors, according to author Marc Hijink, who profiles the North Brabant company in his book Focus: the ASML method. “They are very afraid that ultimately, when China no longer has access to ASML machines, they will be even more motivated to build their own lithography system that could compete with ASML’s,” he says. “They think that’s what’s missing in the United States.” A concurrent ASML can be time consuming. “Lithography is difficult. It’s expensive. From a scientific point of view, it is a challenge to build such a machine. But it’s not impossible,” adds Hijink. “As we like to say at ASML, what can be done in Brabant can also be done in Beijing. »
ASML’s options to prevent Chinese competitors from becoming a problem are limited. “Of course, they try to push for more room to maneuver,” says Hijink. ASML representatives met with U.S. export policy chief Alan Estevez earlier this month. But Fouquet will have to decide whether the Netherlands is the most strategic location for the company, as technological tensions mount. Under the leadership of its previous CEO, Peter Wennink, ASML threatened to leave the country, citing anti-immigration rhetoric following the victory of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) in November elections. Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that ASML was considering France as an alternative base, citing a single unnamed source. “If we can’t get people here, we’ll bring them somewhere else,” CEO Wennick told Politico in January.
ASML’s success means it finds itself caught in the headwinds of the US-China power struggle. For many, Fouquet’s best defense will be to alert a wider public to his cause. “I hope the next CEO’s agenda will be to redouble efforts to make the ASML case a European case,” says Gehrke. “It’s not just a matter for the Dutch government.”
