China’s IC industry output value grew 20.8% from a year earlier to CNY115.29 billion (US$18.1 billion) in the first quarter of 2018, according to statistics released by the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA).
The output value of China’s IC design industry sector increased 22% on year to CNY39.45 billion in the first quarter of 2018, while that of the IC manufacturing sector climbed 26.2% from a year ago to CNY35.59 billion, the statistics show.
China’s IC packaging and testing sectors generated a combined NT$40.25 billion in production value in the first quarter of 2018, representing 19.6% growth on year, according to the statistics.
With Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) and Huali Microelectronics (HLMC) ramping up their advanced process output, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) Nanjing fab coming online, China’s IC manufacturing sector is set to outpace the IC backend segment in production value around the end of 2018, CSIA said.
The output value of China’s IC manufacturing sector will continue expanding in 2019, when the local memory startups begin running their new fabs, according to industry sources. These startups include Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), Innotron Memory and Jinhua Integrated Circuit.
In addition, China imported US$70.05 billion of ICs in the first quarter of 2018, up 38.7% on year, while the exported ICs came to US$18.07 billion in value, rising 34% from a year earlier, according to statistics released by China’s General Administration of Customs.