According to foreign science and technology media tomshardware citing domestic data, mainland Chinese semiconductor manufacturers produced more than 1 billion chips per day in June, which is a historical record. However, although local chip manufacturers have set records, this is not enough to meet domestic demand. Most of the semiconductors currently in use need to be imported.
171.2 billion integrated circuits have been manufactured so far this year
According to the South China Morning Post, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, semiconductor manufacturers in mainland China (including memory and logic component manufacturers) produced 30.8 billion chips in June, an increase of 43.9% over the same period in 2020. In May, 29.9 billion integrated circuits were produced. In the first six months of this year, 171.2 billion chips were produced, a year-on-year increase of 48.1%.
There is no doubt that the production of 30.8 billion chips in a month is a lot. However, China imported 51.9 billion semiconductors in June, which means that China can manufacture about 37% of semiconductor demand. Although the country has a strong installed capacity, it is not yet fully self-sufficient in terms of chip supply.
Catch up with Japan
Recently, IC Insights released its 2021-2025 global wafer production capacity report. The report shows that Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan are the top three countries and regions in global semiconductor production capacity, controlling more than half of global semiconductor production.
Taiwan has the world’s largest logic chip foundry TSMC, UMC, a number of small foundries and many DRAM manufacturers, and therefore controls 21.4% of global semiconductor production. According to IC Insights, companies in Taiwan can process up to 4.448 million 200mm equivalent wafers per month.
South Korea has Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, the world’s largest 3D NAND and DRAM memory manufacturers, and some smaller semiconductor companies. According to IC Insights data, as of the end of 2020, the country’s semiconductor companies can process up to 4.253 million 200mm equivalent wafers per month, and occupy about 20.4% of the market share.
Japanese companies no longer produce leading logic chips, but the country has the world’s largest 2D/3D NAND production facilities operated by Kioxia and Western Digital. In addition, companies like Renesas are still producing chips for various industries, including automobiles, and the country has numerous fabs. Japanese companies can process approximately 3.281 million 200mm equivalent wafers per month and control approximately 15.8% of global semiconductor production.
Mainland China is actually the world’s fourth largest chip producer, basically the same as Japan, with a monthly production capacity of 3.184 million 200mm equivalent wafers, with a share of 15.3%. It should be noted that most of the logic chips made in China are processed with nodes of 28nm or older, so they cannot be used in devices that require real high performance, such as mainstream and high-end PCs. In addition, Samsung and SK Hynix, which have fabs in mainland China, are not eager to transfer their leading technologies to China.
The United States ranks fifth with a global market share of 12.6% and a monthly capacity of approximately 2.633 million 200mm equivalent wafers. Although the United States is clearly lagging behind China, Japan, and South Korea, it is important that American companies that have fabs in the country mainly produce expensive, highly profitable logic chips.
Summarize
China’s semiconductor industry has made extraordinary progress in the past 20 years and has not lost momentum-it will grow further and may replace Japan this year or next.
The Links: LQ281L1LW14 SEMIX703GB126V1
