China’s chip imports fell 12.4 percent in September, according to official customs data published on Monday, continuing to decline amid tensions with the United States and ongoing chip shortages.
The country imported 47.6 billion piece units during the month, compared to 54.3 billion units in September 2021, according to the data, which was scheduled to release earlier this month but was delayed due to the Communist Party Congress.
This maintains a steady declining trend for chip imports.
In the first nine months of 2021, China imported 417.1 billion units of chips, down 12.8 percent year-on-year.
Chip imports into China rose in 2021, as tensions between the US and China over technology policy and global chip shortages forced many companies in China to stockpile supplies.
Separate data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed domestic chip production fell 16.4 percent year-on-year to 26.1 billion units in September. In the first nine months of 2022, total production fell 10.8 percent 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 China’s progress. semiconductor sector, the latest is a set of restrictions announced by the Biden administration earlier this month.
The sanctions have cut off supplies of major Chinese chip companies to major foreign-based chip manufacturing equipment companies, including Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) And Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC)and manufacturer of advanced artificial intelligence Chips to stop supplying companies and laboratories.
In other news, Apple Nikkei on Monday said it has halted plans to use memory chips from China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) in its products, after Washington imposed stricter export controls against Chinese technology companies. Nikkei, citing people familiar with the matter, said Apple originally planned to start using state-funded YMTC’s NAND flash memory chips earlier this year. The chips were initially planned to be used only for iPhone models sold in the Chinese market.
© Thomson Reuters 2022