The trade ministry expects the latest export controls announced by the United States to have little impact on the South Korean chip industry.

After the U.S. restricted exports to China of advanced high-bandwidth memory(HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence(AI), a ministry official said Tuesday that SK hynix is supplying most of its HBM chips to the U.S. firm Nvidia and Samsung Electronics is only exporting some low-spec HBM chips to China.

The official said those chips account for a small fraction of Samsung’s sales and that the overall impact of the new export controls on South Korean companies will be minimal.

On Monday the U.S. Commerce Department announced fresh curbs on exports of advanced HBM chips to China, along with expanded restrictions on chipmaking equipment.

Another official at the trade ministry said Tuesday that the new restrictions on equipment are likely to have a limited impact on South Korean companies, as they are limited to high-tech equipment.