According to the latest data released by the General Administration of Customs, China's integrated circuit import volume in 2023 was 479.56 billion units, a year-on-year decrease of 10.8%, and the amount was 2.45907 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.6%. but,If the import value is calculated in US dollars, it will be US$349 billion, a 15.4% drop compared with 2022.
In addition, the number of diodes and similar semiconductor components (representatives of ordinary commodity chips) imported by China in 2023 also dropped significantly by 23.8% to 452.96 billion units, and the import value fell by 23.8% year-on-year to 165.81 billion yuan.
Although the global chip market will also experience an 11% year-on-year decline in 2023 to US$533 billion due to the weakening global economy, China's chip imports (in US dollars) will decline even more.
Looking at the specific reasons, Xinzhixun believes that they can be summarized into the following four major factors:
first,Relatively slow global economic recovery and deflation in China in 2023, may be one of the reasons.
Against this background, domestic consumers' willingness to consume many non-essential electronic products has been suppressed, which has also led to a reduction in demand for semiconductor conductors.
Secondly, due toThe Sino-US trade war and some manufacturers’ concerns about supply chain decentralization, began to increase investment in the electronics manufacturing industry in India, Vietnam and other places, and moved the manufacturing of some smartphones, laptops and other products to these areas. This also led to a further reduction in China's electronics manufacturing industry's demand for imported chips compared with last year.
What needs to be pointed out here is that some overseas manufacturers exclude chips that are independently designed by Chinese manufacturers and produced by domestic wafer factories.
third,Export restrictions on high-performance computing chips introduced by the United States in October 2022, China is unable to import cutting-edge high-performance chips. Even if NVIDIA subsequently launched a downgraded version of AI chips modified for the Chinese market (including A100/A800, etc.), the new restrictions introduced by the United States in October 2023 also restricted it. These are undoubtedly also an important factor leading to the decrease in China's chip imports.
One data that can be used as evidence is that in 2023, China's import value of imported chips fell by 15.4% in US dollars, but the total amount of imported chips only fell by 10.8%, which reflects the decrease in the import of high-value chips.
Fourth, due toU.S. restrictions on China’s semiconductor industry, has also further stimulated Chinese manufacturers to consider the security of their own semiconductor supply chains and increased their adoption of domestic semiconductor supply chains.
For example, some domestic chip design manufacturers have begun to hand over more chips to domestic foundries for production, and some terminal manufacturers have also begun to use more domestic chips. These have, to a certain extent, led to a reduction in the number and amount of chips imported into China.
What needs to be pointed out here is that the chips imported by China include chips independently designed by Chinese manufacturers but produced by overseas foundries.