On April 22nd, China's semiconductor production witnessed a staggering 40% surge in the first quarter, signaling the increasing dominance of mature process chips in the Chinese market.
According to the latest data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics, the integrated circuit production nationwide soared to 36.2 billion pieces in March alone, marking a 28.4% year-on-year increase and reaching an all-time high.
Behind this remarkable growth lies the robust demand from downstream industries such as new energy vehicles.
In the first quarter, the production of new energy vehicles in China grew by 29.2%, reaching 2.08 million units; simultaneously, the production of smartphones also increased by 16.7%.
Mainland China extensively adopts mature process semiconductors of 28 nanometers and above (with limited use of advanced processes like 7nm) in various sectors such as automobiles, now accounting for 29% of global production capacity.
In recent years, semiconductor production facilities have sprung up across China like mushrooms after rain, continuously expanding the country's integrated circuit production capacity. The production in the first three months of this year was nearly triple that of the same period in 2019.
Some researchers point out that one of the unintended consequences of the US export controls on advanced chip technology to China may be the surge of investment fueled by government support, leading to overproduction and potentially positioning China as the global leader in traditional chip manufacturing.
