China’s semiconductor imports continued to expand this year, as mainland enterprises rushed to stockpile integrated circuits (ICs) from US suppliers ahead of the roll-out of fresh trade sanctions by Washington.
Advertisement
From January to November, China imported a total of 501.47 billion ICs, a 14.8 per cent jump in volume from the same period last year, according to data published on Tuesday by the General Administration of Customs.
The total value of IC imports recorded by the mainland in the past 11 months reached US$349 billion, up 10.5 per cent from a year earlier, customs data showed.
The double-digit increase in terms of volume and value of IC imports reflects Chinese enterprises’ concerns over the severity of tightened US semiconductor restrictions and the potential impact on their operations.
New measures, announced earlier this month by the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, imposed export restrictions on 24 types of chipmaking equipment and three categories of software essential for semiconductor development.
Advertisement
A significant focus of the updated restrictions is high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips – used in data centres for artificial intelligence (AI) projects. It bars the export to China of US-origin and foreign-made HBM chips to prevent Beijing from building its AI capabilities for military applications.
