July statistics showed that China’s integrated circuit production volume grew for the fourth straight month, but the growth rate is slowing amid a slow economic recovery and the maintenance of elevated product inventories. In seven months of the current year, the total production volume fell by 3.9% compared to the same period last year.
Image source: SMIC
This was announced by the resource, citing data from China’s state statistical agencies. South China tomorrow post. In July, Chinese companies with annual sales of over US$2.9 billion produced 29.2 billion integrated circuits, up 4.1% from the same month last year. Volumes have been growing since April this year, when they rose 3.8% for the first time in the previous 16 months to 28.1 billion ICs. However, the chip production growth rate in China is slowing compared to the previous months and in the first seven months of the year it still declined by 3.9% y/y to 191.2 billion pieces. In May and June the increase was 7% and 5.7% respectively, falling to 4.1% in July.
To some extent, China’s integrated circuit production volume may be affected by the sanctions imposed by the United States and its closest allies. Since late last month, Japan has restricted exports of 23 types of lithography equipment to China, while the US imposed its sanctions back in October last year and is considering expanding them this year. These efforts are being coordinated with the authorities of the Netherlands, which is a major import destination for lithographic equipment in most countries around the world. China’s integrated circuit imports fell 16.8% to 270.2 billion units in the seven months of this year. At the end of last year, 324.2 billion integrated circuits were produced in China, down 9.8% from the 2021 result. After the introduction of US sanctions in October last year, the monthly production decline in China reached 26.7%.
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