October statistics alone have already shown that Chinese companies are ready to purchase imported chip manufacturing equipment in any available quantities. The quarterly data only confirmed this trend, showing a 93% year-on-year increase in the cost of purchasing imported equipment by Chinese chipmakers to $8.7 billion.
Image source: ASML
This was reported by the resource, citing data from Chinese customs authorities, earlier this week. Nikkei Asian Review. In the direction of lithographic equipment, as the source explains, imports have almost quadrupled in monetary terms. Directly in the Dutch direction, it has grown sixfold, and the main beneficiary of these phenomena is likely to be ASML, the world’s largest supplier of lithography scanners. In the last quarter, China said it generated 46% of its sales in this period. Chinese customers are literally sweeping away the devices that can still be purchased under the conditions of export restrictions from the USA, the Netherlands and Japan. In the financial statistics, these actions are reflected with some delay – delivery of ordered devices can take up to six months.
Imports of chip manufacturing equipment from Japan to China rose nearly 40% in the latest quarter compared to the same period last year. The United States, which was the first to impose sanctions on the semiconductor industry in China, increased shipments of specialized equipment to that country by only 20%. While the United States accounted for 17% of Chinese imports in 2021, this figure now no longer exceeds 9%. In the case of the Netherlands, it rose from 15 to almost 30%, while Japan’s share fell from 32 to 25%. In the second quarter of this year, 29% of global sales came from the sale of equipment for the production of semiconductor components, according to industry association SEMI.
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