China is the world’s largest buyer of semiconductors, but domestic production is marginal. According to CSIA, sales in China increased by 17.8% in 2020 to 891 billion yuan ($ 137 billion) from a year earlier.
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After semiconductor sales rose 18% last year, Zhou Zixu, a senior official of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, said the world was going through an unprecedented chip shortage.
“If you are an experienced player, you will remember that there was a similar crisis in the industry in 1999, but Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) President Zhou said in the remarks at SEMICON China.
“We have to deepen our cooperation, we have to focus more on innovation. Only by doing that our industry can control the challenges we face.”
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China is the world’s largest buyer of semiconductors, but domestic production is marginal. According to CSIA, sales in China increased by 17.8% in 2020 to 891 billion yuan ($ 137 billion) from a year earlier.
The need to cut dependence on China’s foreign chip companies became apparent last year when US sanctions on Shenzhen-based hardware manufacturer Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. blocked it from sourcing components, crippling the once-blistering smartphone business.
Not long after, the proliferation of COVID-19 disrupted supply chains and eventually led to a chip shortage. Once concentrated in the automotive industry, the crunch has now spread to a wide range of electronics and has reached the upper reaches of the chip supply chain. ($ 1 = 6.5 yuan)
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