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Quicksilver Manufacturing Inc, Rapid Cut LLC and U.S. Prototype
Inc received technical drawings and blueprints from U.S.
customers and sent them to manufacturers in China to 3-D print
satellite, rocket, and defense-related prototypes without
authorization, the department said.
The three companies, which share the same Wilmington, North
Carolina, address, could not immediately be reached for comment.
"Outsourcing 3-D printing of space and defense prototypes to
China harms U.S. national security," Assistant Secretary of
Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod said in a
statement.
"By sending their customers' technical drawings and blueprints
to China, these companies may have saved a few bucks, but they
did so at the collective expense of protecting U.S. military
technology."
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in
Washington, said the United States was using export controls as
a tool of "economic bullying." Its actions damaged international
trade and free-trade rules, and posed a serious threat to global
supply chains, he said.
The Commerce Department said the information illegally sent to
China included sensitive prototype space and defense
technologies and that the 180-day export suspension could be
renewed.
It did not identify the companies who had contracted with the
North Carolina firms. But, according to the department's June 7
order denying export privileges, a U.S. aerospace and global
defense technology company notified the department in February
2020 of a third-party supplier's unauthorized export of
controlled satellite technology.
The department's investigation revealed that Quicksilver got an
order in July 2017 for satellite parts for the aerospace
company's prototype space-satellite. To make components,
Quicksilver was given about a dozen technical drawings and 3-D
graphic/computer aided drawing files.
A company employee signed a non-disclosure agreement, which
included that the work be conducted in compliance with U.S.
export control regulations, the order said. Those regulations
required licenses that likely would have been denied.
But Quicksilver fulfilled the order that August without seeking
a license, and included an invoice that indicated the products
had been shipped from China, the order said.
The Commerce Department said it had discovered a similar
violation last July by Rapid Cut, whose ownership and personnel
are also related to Quicksilver, involving technology that is
controlled for national security.
Quicksilver was also involved in a violation relating to a third
U.S. company, an advanced science and engineering company with
contracts with the Department of Defense, the department said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, Karen Freifeld in
New York and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; Editing by Tim Ahmann,
David Gregorio and Richard Pullin)
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