Chinese chip imports fell 12.4% in September, official customs data showed on Monday, continuing to decline amid tensions with the United States and a continued shortage of chips.
The country imported 47.6 billion units of chips during the month, down from 54.3 billion units in September 2021, according to the data, which was due to be released earlier this month but was delayed due to of the Communist Party Congress.
This maintains a continued downward trend for chip imports.
In the first nine months of 2021, China imported 417.1 billion chip units, down 12.8 percent year-on-year.
China’s chip imports surged in 2021 as tensions between the United States and China over technology policy escalated and a global chip shortage prompted many companies in China to stockpile chips. stationery.
Separate data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed domestic chip production in September fell 16.4 percent year-on-year to 26.1 billion units. In the first nine months of 2022, total production fell 10.8% to 245 billion units.
Achieving self-sufficiency for China’s chip industry remains a key policy priority for Beijing, especially as Washington continues to target progress in China’s semiconductor sector, the latest being a series of sanctions announced by the government. Biden administration earlier this month.
The sanctions have caused major overseas-based chip-making equipment companies to stop supplying major Chinese chip companies, including Yangtze memory Technologies (YMTC) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), and chipmakers advanced artificial intelligence to stop supplying companies and laboratories.
Separately, Apple has suspended plans to use memory chips from China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) in its products, after Washington imposed tougher export controls on Chinese tech companies, it reported on Monday. the Nikkei. Apple originally planned to start using publicly funded YMTC NAND flash memory chips as early as this year, Nikkei said, citing people familiar with the matter. The chips were originally intended to be used only for iPhone models sold in the Chinese market.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
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