China’s integrated circuit (IC) output increased 8.7 per cent year on year to 37.6 billion units in November, as growth slows amid an intensifying US-China tech war and escalating chip restrictions.
Growth of IC output – a broad measure of semiconductor production – has fallen to single digits for the first time this year, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday.
Total IC output for the first 11 months of the year rose 23.1 per cent year on year to 395.3 billion units, according to the NBS. The country’s overall value-added industrial output rose 5.4 per cent year on year for the period.
The semiconductor industry remains the central battleground in the US-China tech rivalry. Washington further tightened restrictions on China’s chip sector this month, imposing export controls on 24 types of chipmaking equipment and three categories of critical software, while adding 140 chip-related Chinese organisations to its trade blacklist. In response, Beijing last week launched an antitrust probe into US chip giant Nvidia.
China’s IC output is buoyed by strong demand from industries such as robotics and electric vehicles. The country’s output volume of industrial robotics surged 29.3 per cent in November from a year earlier, while electric vehicle output expanded 51.1 per cent, the NBS data showed.
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IC exports reached 271.6 billion units in the 11-month period, up 11.4 per cent year on year, according to customs data. The value of these exports reached nearly US$145 billion, up 18.8 per cent from a year earlier, showing continued momentum in the country’s production of so-called legacy chips.
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