Chinese semiconductor thread II
- Thread starter vincent
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Thanks a ton! Actually it does bring a different (and a little more detailed compared to other sites) insight into the Chinese Semiconductor Industry. Digitimes have been in the Semiconductor firm research for a very long time now so their insight does not hurt to look at
China-based semiconductor equipment suppliers continue to see explosive growth
Jingyue Hsiao, DIGITIMES Asia, TaipeiMonday 6 May 2024
Credit: AFP
Amid the indigenization efforts, China-based semiconductor equipment makers continued to witness explosive growth over the past year, as most companies reported double-digit growth in sales and profits.
Amid the indigenization efforts, China-based semiconductor equipment makers continued to witness explosive growth over the past year, as most companies reported double-digit growth in sales and profits.
In the latest financial report, Naura Technology had a whopping 50% increase in sales and a significant 65% boost in profits last year. Zhejiang JIngsheng Mechanical and Electrical also had a remarkable performance, with nearly a 70% surge in sales and close to a 60% rise in profits. Similarly, AMEC saw strong growth in both sales and profits, hitting double-digit figures during the same timeframe.
Naura Technology highlighted in its annual report that recent years have witnessed a surge in demand for ICs due to the rapid advancement of technologies like AI, 5G, and IoT. The recovery in the latter half of 2023 saw an uptick in sales for end products such as smartphones and PCs. Additionally, the ongoing construction of AI infrastructure has fueled further demand for hardware in the market.
Naura Technology said that the semiconductor industry in China hit a record high in 2023. Based on SEMI data, semiconductor equipment sales in China surged to US$34.2 billion, an 8% increase from the previous year and capturing a global market share of 30.3%. This underscores China's importance in the global integrated circuit equipment market and demonstrates the robust demand for such equipment within the Chinese market.
In its annual report, AMEC announced a notable surge in market shares for CCP and ICP etching systems. The company attributed this growth to its diverse portfolio, ongoing advancements in key technologies, swift product iterations, and extensive coverage of etching equipment.
Naura Technology highlighted several risk factors in its report, including the downturn in the semiconductor market, potential overseas supply disruptions, a slowdown in domestic demand for semiconductor equipment, slower-than-expected progress in high-end equipment R&D, and escalating industry competition.
In the near future, domestic demand in China is projected to continue supporting the operations of semiconductor equipment suppliers based in the country. This comes amid reports from Bloomberg suggesting that Japan is exploring the possibility of expanding export restrictions on four technologies linked to semiconductors or quantum computing.
Meanwhile, semiconductor equipment suppliers outside China still rely on the market for growth. According to ASML's latest financial results, China accounted for nearly half of the company's revenue in the first quarter of 2024, as its customers in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan reduced procurement amid an industrial downturn.
Source: Bloomberg, May 2024
China-based semiconductor supplier financial summary (CNYm) 2021 2022 2023 Supplier Profit Sales Profit Sales Profit Sales Naura Technology 1,077.4 9,683.5 2,352.7 14,688.1 3,899.1 22,079.5 Zhejiang Jingsheng Mechanical & Electrical 1,711.7 5,961.4 2,924.4 10,638.3 4,557.5 17,983.2 AMEC 1,011.4 3,108.1 1,169.8 4,739.8 1,785.9 6,263.5 ACM Research Shanghai 266.2 1,620.9 668.5 2,873.0 910.5 3,888.3 Piotech 68.5 758.0 368.5 1,705.6 662.6 2,705.0 Hwatsing Technology 198.3 804.9 501.6 1,648.8 723.7 2,508.0 Hangzhou Chang Chuan Technology 218.2 1,511.2 461.1 2,576.5 45.2 1,775.1 Kingsemi 77.3 828.7 200.2 1,384.9 250.6 1,717.0 Xinyichang Technology 232.0 1,196.6 204.7 1,183.7 60.3 1,040.2 Skyverse Technology 53.4 360.6 11.7 509.2 140.3 890.9 Beijing Huafeng Test & Control Technology 438.8 878.3 526.3 1,070.6 251.7 690.9
Article you requested @Wahid145
If anyone needs anything paywalled including Digitimes tag me. I have access to a lot of paywalled content through my work.
Personally I don't see a lot of value in these three Digitimes articles. They're largely just rehashing existing numbers seen in other reports.
as far as I can glean, America just imposed a 50% tariff on Chinese chips.
This is quite interesting, because I think a counter tariff on American chips and possibly chipmaking equipment is certainly in order.
Especially for analog, control, auto and power chips that TI, Onsemi and analog device would sell to China, a 50% tariff on that would make them entirely uncompetitive in Chinese market.
Similarly, a 50% tariff on Micron memory chips would make it entirely uncompetitive vs SK and Samsung DRAMs/Nand
And they should phase in some kind of tariffs on chipmaking equipment also, since that will further improve economics of domestic SMEs
This is quite interesting, because I think a counter tariff on American chips and possibly chipmaking equipment is certainly in order.
Especially for analog, control, auto and power chips that TI, Onsemi and analog device would sell to China, a 50% tariff on that would make them entirely uncompetitive in Chinese market.
Similarly, a 50% tariff on Micron memory chips would make it entirely uncompetitive vs SK and Samsung DRAMs/Nand
And they should phase in some kind of tariffs on chipmaking equipment also, since that will further improve economics of domestic SMEs
Beiwei automotive-grade IMU chip project launched
On May 10, Beiwei Microelectronics signed cooperation agreements with Yuanhe Puhua Capital and Southeast University respectively, and Beiwei Automotive Grade IMU chip project was officially launched. District Party Committee Secretary Sun Haidong, Southeast University Professor Li Hongsheng, Peking University Professor Jin Yufeng, Deputy District Governor Jiang Weiwei, Beiwei Sensing Chairman Shi Guangyi, General Manager Wang Chunbo, China Semiconductor Industry Association Director Liu Yue, as well as project team experts and cooperation Partners attended the event.
When congratulating the signing of the project, Sun Haidong said that the intelligentization process of new energy vehicles has brought huge opportunities to the industrialization of automotive chips. Beiwei Sensing is deeply engaged in the research and development and manufacturing of inertial sensors and has profound technology accumulation. level IMU chip "track" with good development prospects. It is hoped that Beiwei Sensing, under the guidance of the national development strategy, driven by market demand, and with the support of top teams, will actively seize new opportunities such as the intelligent connected automobile industry, autonomous driving technology, and low-altitude economy, anchor its goals, and meet Overcoming difficulties and overcoming difficulties, creating more breakthrough technological achievements in the industrialization process of automotive-grade IMU chips, promoting the innovative development of Beiwei Sensing, entering the capital market, and empowering Binhu to form more new productivity. Binhu will continue to focus on the guarantee of elements such as talents and services, actively meet the needs of enterprises, and provide a development environment for enterprises to grow like a fish in water.
Shi Guangyi thanked all levels of Binhu for their long-term support and concern for the development of the enterprise, and briefly introduced the preliminary preparations for the Beiwei Automobile-level IMU chip project. He said that Beiwei Sensing has been rooted in Binhu for more than ten years, and its independently developed smart sensor products can fully meet the needs of various inertial attitude measurements and high-precision navigation and positioning. With the rapid development of emerging and future industries such as smart cars and robots, domestic industrial-grade inertial chips have rich application scenarios and broad market opportunities. The launch of Beiwei's automotive-grade IMU chip project is a major strategic layout for Beiwei Sensing to enter the field of industrial-grade inertial chips. It will achieve domestic application of chips through independent research and development and innovation. "The road is tortuous, but we Full of confidence.”
As a core component of automobile intelligence and automation, automotive-grade IMU chips are of great significance for improving vehicle performance and ensuring driving safety. Beiwei's automotive-grade IMU chip project relies on university professor think tanks, industry senior experts, and key technical teams to promote breakthroughs in key processes, the design and implementation of new structures and key packaging processes, as well as the design and tape-out of core ASICs, forming a unique Nationally produced IMU chips with independent brands and intellectual property rights.
That probably depends if domestic chip making equipment is supply or demand restrained. I would bet that everyone is on expansion mode and the only limiting factor is time for all these expansion projects to be finished.
If that's the case, any extra tariffs is just extra cost passed to the domestic customer since domestic chip company can't properly provide the supply volume to compete with the higher cost external competitor's products
I guess your "phase in" is to account for this exact scenario. Maybe a deadline based sanction where it says that start of 2025 sanctions of x% are imposed, then start of 2026 3x%, 2027 6x% and so on. That would be a solid signaling to domestic chip making companies to frantically expand as much as possible.
Ideally at a later stage there can be some sort of deal cut so that these sanctions are then lowered to ensure that domestic companies have sufficient market pressure to keep innovating
Tariffs on analog chips and gas cars would be more damaging than equipment. Putting higher tariffs on US gas cars will push Chinese consumers into buying more cheaper EVs.
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Would love to see the Tariffs on the Analog Chips. Still can't believe Broadcom and TI have such huge revenue when there are Chinese equivalent in those fronts
If they are good for Huawei they are good for everyone else.
A response would be to crank up the heat on US companies little by little as Chinese IC companies move up in the ladder and so will be the tariffs 5% 10% 20% 50% 100%. I don't know if the Chinese government will implement those but who knows.
This new step, confirmed also by , is 50% a political stunt in an election year and 50% a change of strategy (that is already ongoing btw) from attack to defense.
We can expect to see more and more protectionism on US side, and indirectly from Europe that will follow suit, but with the typical European inertia and watered down actions.
High-tech decoupling from China by means of protectionism barriers is a long term process that will grow more and more in the coming years.
China is quickly moving from "factory of the world" to advanced technology manufacturer. This is somewhat unavoidable. But due to this, is also unavoidable for China to go straight in the face of West high value industry and core strategic assets.
US and Europe will defend their advanced industries at any cost, because to have an edge in technology is what allowed the West to be "The West" from the industrial revolution 3 centuries ago untill today.
So we will have more of this, for sure.
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