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The ban on US trade sanctions will find its next Chinese victim: After Huawei and various other Chinese tech companies, Xiaomi also landed on the US Department of Defense's blacklist on Thursday evening, according to a report from Reuters.

First of all, this means that US investors will have to sell their shares in the group by the end of the year and that the shares can no longer be traded on US stock exchanges.

The American authorities justify their move with the fact that Xiaomi has business relationships with the Chinese military.

The outgoing administration of US President Trump had imposed increasingly draconian measures against Chinese technology companies in recent months - the former smartphone market leader Huawei, which was cut off from access to American technology and therefore had to sell its cell phone brand Honor, was hit hardest.

The sanctions also have an impact on Germany because chip manufacturers who supply parts for the automotive industry are also affected.

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The first reaction of the market to the Xiaomi ban - the share temporarily plummeted by more than 10 percent - shows that analysts and investors fear even more far-reaching sanctions.

The fact that of all things Xiaomi, a pure consumer goods manufacturer, should now be subject to sanctions, is initially surprising.

But Xiaomi had recently overtaken the US manufacturer Apple in smartphone sales.

Market observers suspect that this played a role in the authorities' decision.

That would fit into the pattern of sanctions that hit the Chinese app Tiktok as the only serious Facebook competitor in 2020, among other things, Bloomberg analyst Vlad Savobv commented on Twitter.

Sanctions for more than ten Chinese corporations

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Xiaomi reacted in astonishment to the ban: “We are examining the potential consequences of this matter.

The company will make further announcements if necessary, ”is a first statement.

If technology sanctions were to follow the financial ban, Xiaomi's luxury mobile phone division, which exerts great competitive pressure on Apple especially in Asia, would be in serious danger.

Because for the production of luxury smartphones, Xiaomi works closely with the US chip manufacturer Qualcomm and most recently was the first manufacturer to have access to its latest smartphone chip Snapdragon 888. Should Qualcomm no longer be allowed to deliver, Xiaomi would have to manufacture less high-quality products Limit budget phones.

However, the banned list of the Department of Defense differs from that of the US Department of Commerce, which includes the drone market leaders DJI and Huawei - some companies are affected by both forms of sanction and are therefore also cut off from technology licenses, some only by the Investment ban occupied.

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Xiaomi isn't the only Chinese tech company to be hit hard by the latest sanctions.

A total of ten other Chinese tech companies are said to be affected, including the chip manufacturer Gowin Semiconductor and Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc., a manufacturer of machines for chip production.

The leading Chinese chip manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) had already been sanctioned in December: Apparently, the US administration systematically selected those companies that hold key positions for the expansion of China's technology industry.

Since then, SMIC can no longer purchase machines for chip production from US manufacturers.

The consequences of the sanctions against Chinese chip manufacturers are already being felt globally.

Because the companies work as suppliers for many Western corporations - including in the mobile communications, consumer electronics and automotive industries.

However, the automotive industry in particular is currently suffering from a global shortage in the market for certain Xiaomi chips that are required for control units and sensors in modern cars.

Audi, Mercedes and Volkswagen also affected

The car manufacturers' suppliers work longer in advance and cannot adapt to changes in the market as quickly as the consumer electronics manufacturers.

In addition, they plan with smaller margins - a control unit brings in significantly less than a luxury smartphone.

Chinese electronics companies are also currently trying to secure capacities from chip manufacturers without US influence and are partially crowding out orders from automakers.

If Chinese chip manufacturers fail as suppliers due to sanctions, the first thing that will hit the car manufacturers' supply chains.

According to a Reuters research, at least one large auto supplier is directly affected by the sanction against SMIC.

The company tried to book additional capacity with the Taiwanese SMIC competitor TSMC.

TSMC, however, was booked out due to orders from manufacturers such as Apple, nVidia and AMD and could not deliver on time.

According to Reuters, Ford in particular has been hit hard, which is why the production lines at the Saarlouis plant in Germany are currently standing still.

Since December, bottlenecks in the computer chip replenishment in the automotive industry became apparent.

This is a consequence of the slump in sales in the first lockdown last year, according to the industry.

Because production has a lead time of six to seven weeks and the suppliers apparently did not expect the market to recover in autumn, they are now missing the parts.

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Both Continental and Bosch are affected - and with them almost all German car manufacturers: Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes-Benz had to cut production and have registered short-time work for the employees concerned.

It is doubtful whether the sanctions against the Chinese tech manufacturers will be continued so severely by the coming US administration under Joe Biden - but at least in the short term, Biden should not reverse existing sanctions.

Biden also has an interest in putting China under pressure and protecting the US tech market leaders.

The war of sanctions could therefore be continued, albeit less hotly.