With the fierce development of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and other application directions, one of the most important forces behind it-the chip industry has ushered in a new round of discussions, which has caused the semiconductor industry to attract a lot of attention. and China''s determination and enthusiasm for developing the semiconductor industry is obvious to all. So how is the semiconductor market going? What efforts have China recently made to achieve autonomous substitution?

Semiconductor sales growth hits seven-year high in April

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), which mainly represents the US semiconductor industry, recently released a report that global semiconductor sales reached US $ 31.3 billion in April this year, a year-on-year increase of 20.9%, the highest year-on-year increase since September 2010. Expectations from the industry show that global semiconductor sales are expected to increase by 11.5% in 2017, 2.7% in 2018, and a slight decline of 0.2% in 2019.

SIA President John Noveel said that the global semiconductor market has achieved remarkable high growth since 2017. Not only has the memory market grown significantly, but non-memory product sales have also achieved double-digit growth. All major regional markets have considerable growth. Year-on-year increase.

In terms of different regions, in April China ’s semiconductor sales increased by 30% year-on-year, the Americas market grew by 27%, the Asia-Pacific and other markets grew by 14.1%, the European market grew by 12.7%, and the Japanese market grew by 12%.

China will become the world''s second largest semiconductor equipment buyer next year

Although it has attracted the attention of advanced countries such as the United States, South Korea, and Japan, China''s determination to develop the semiconductor industry and its investment have become irreversible. In order to expand the domestic production rate of semiconductor chips, China has invested heavily in the construction of wafer fabs, and investment in the purchase of semiconductor equipment has also increased. In 2017, the mainland is expected to spend US $ 5.4 billion to purchase semiconductor equipment, ranking third in the world. In 2018, the investment in semiconductor equipment will further increase by 60% to US $ 8.6 billion, becoming the second in the world, behind Korea.

According to data released by the SEMI (Global Semiconductor Equipment Industry Association), the global semiconductor equipment spending in Q1 was US $ 13.1 billion, South Korea ranked first with a share of US $ 3.53 billion, a year-on-year increase of 110%; Taiwan ’s investment amount was US $ 3.48 billion. This is an increase of 86% year-on-year, and that of the mainland is US $ 2.01 billion, an increase of 25% year-on-year.

SEMI estimates that global semiconductor equipment investment will reach 49 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, of which 8 billion will be invested in the fab infrastructure construction. By 2018, semiconductor manufacturing equipment investment will increase to 54 billion U.S. dollars, and infrastructure investment will reach 10 billion U.S. dollars.

The driving force behind the dramatic growth of global semiconductor manufacturing equipment is mainly from South Korea, Taiwan, and mainland markets. South Korea ’s equipment investment this year will reach 14.6 billion U.S. dollars, next year it will reach 15.1 billion U.S. dollars, continuing to maintain its No. 1 position.

Mainland China''s investment in the semiconductor industry continues to grow significantly. Last year, equipment investment was only 3.5 billion US dollars, this year will reach 5.4 billion US dollars, next year it will reach 8.6 billion US dollars. It is still far from Samsung, but it surpasses Taiwan to become the second largest semiconductor equipment. market.

Mainland China''s investment in semiconductor equipment is mainly due to increased investment by domestic companies. Leading companies include Huali Microelectronics, SMIC and other established semiconductor companies, as well as Yangtze River Storage Technology, Fujian Jinhua Semiconductor, Tsinghua Ziguang, and Israel Taco. Malaysia (invested in wafer fabs in China) and Hefei Changxin Semiconductor and other emerging companies.

North America''s semiconductor equipment investment ranks fourth in the world, and is expected to be $ 5.2 billion this year and $ 5.5 billion next year.

Japan ranks fifth, with investment in semiconductor equipment this year and next being US $ 5.13 billion and US $ 5.3 billion, with similarly small increases.

Europe / Middle East ranked sixth, with investments of $ 3.8 billion and $ 4.6 billion this year and next, up 71% and 20% year-on-year.

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