The production of semiconductor products remains an important export item for China, in monetary terms second only to the supply of clothing items, but at the same time ahead of the export of smartphones. At the end of October, the growth rate of production of integrated circuits in China slowed to 11.8%, but since the beginning of the year the increase was 24.8%.
Image Source: SMIC
This statistics, with reference to official data from Chinese government agencies, is shared by the South China Morning Post. In physical terms, production volumes of integrated circuits in China at the end of October increased by 11.8% year-on-year to 35.9 billion products. They fell slightly sequentially as 36.7 billion units were produced in September. In total, based on the results of ten months of this year, the Chinese industry produced 353 billion integrated circuits, which is 24.8% more than the results of the same period last year.
By the way, in terms of production growth rates, China’s semiconductor industry this year was second only to the electric vehicle industry. In October, electric vehicle production in China increased by 48.6% to 1.43 million vehicles, and since the beginning of the year they have increased by 36.3% to 9.9 million units. Chinese robotics lags behind electric vehicles and chips, but gained 13.3% in October and has increased production volumes by 33.4% since the start of the year. Ferrous metallurgy and cement production showed a decrease in output volumes in October, as a result, the overall growth of industrial production in China was limited to 5.3%.
From January to October, China exported integrated circuits totaling $130.9 billion, up 19.6% from the same period last year. Only clothing exports provided more – $131.2 billion, and the gap was insignificant. Imports of chips to China still significantly exceed exports, since over the ten months of this year they grew by 11.3% to $315 billion. Purchases of oil and iron ore required much lower costs from Chinese economic entities, by comparison.