China’s soaring Dutch imports signal stockpiling of ASML kit ahead of US-backed export controls

“The stunning surge in Chinese imports from the Netherlands over the past few months is a result of Beijing’s buying spree of Dutch chip machinery company ASML before the drawbridge gets pulled up,” said Sander Tordoir, a senior economist at the Centre for European Reform.

...“The Chinese lithography buying spree is evident in ASML’s quarterly earnings reports … each machine costs tens of millions of euros,” Tordoir said. “China scooping them up is therefore capable of driving macro-statistics like Dutch exports to China.”