Chip technology is an area that many countries are competing to develop today, and in Asia, Korea's cutting-edge semiconductor chip leader is at the top of the world, and the value of chips exported in the first half of the year is as high as 65.8 billion US dollars.
What about the mainland's chip exports, which have been committed to promoting the development of chips, I can't help but be surprised when I look at the data.
The development of Korea's chip industry
Chips are the core components of modern electronic devices and computing systems, and the level of a country's chip industry is enough to reflect the level of the country's manufacturing industry.
When it comes to chips, the first thing that comes to our mind may be European and American technology giants, but many people ignore that Korea's chip technology is also in a leading position in the world.
In 2022, Korea's chip production share will be tied for third in the world like Japan, which undoubtedly proves Korea's strength in the chip industry, and Korea does not want to stop there, but continues to invest in the chip industry, hoping to stand in a higher position.
In April, Korea President Yoon Seok-yue said Korea would invest about $6.94 billion in artificial intelligence to maintain Korea's position as a global leader in cutting-edge semiconductor chips.
And Korea Finance Minister Choi Sang-mu also said on Friday that he is preparing a plan of more than $7.3 billion to strengthen the development of key semiconductor production7, and Korea hopes that its country's artificial intelligence technology, including chips, will be among the top three in the world by 2030.
Korea's chip industry mainly relies on two companies, one is Samsung, which we are very familiar with, and the other is Hynix, and the two companies are still working in AI and other fields in order to promote the development of the chip field.
Korea's industry started later than the old developed countries, and it was not until the 60s of the last century that industrial construction began, but in 1965 Korea began to research chips.
Korea is most famous for memory chips, but at the beginning Korea's memory chips had no place in history, the most famous company in the field of memory chips in the 80s was Intel, and then Japan later overtook Intel, and from the nineties to the beginning of the twenty-first century, Korea's chip industry emerged in the world.
Now Korea has single-handedly contributed nearly two-thirds of the world's memory chips, and Samsung and Hynix are well-deserved hegemons in this field.
The reason why Korea can develop so fast in the chip industry is inseparable from their high investment. From 1987 to 1992, Samsung's average capital expenditure accounted for 39.8% of revenue, and the average proportion of the memory chip industry at that time was only 21%, not to mention Hynix, which was better than Samsung.
In addition, the country's policy support is also very important, just under the blessing of these two aspects, Korea's chip industry continues to develop well, but now with the development of related fields in the mainland and other countries, Korea needs to continue to innovate if it wants to maintain its position.
In the first half of this year, Korea's chip exports reached 65.8 billion US dollars, equivalent to almost 467 billion yuan, which is enough to surprise Koreans, because compared with last year, the growth rate is almost as high as half.
Although the results are gratifying, Koreans cannot be complacent, because now the global semiconductor industry is becoming more and more competitive, and Korea has more and more competitors. If you do not take action, it is likely to be surpassed by other countries, and the mainland is undoubtedly a strong rival of Korea, as can be seen from the mainland's semiconductor export data in the first half of the year.
The chip industry in the mainland
Compared with Korea, the mainland's chip industry developed late, which is related to many factors.
Before the reform and opening up, the mainland was committed to promoting industrial construction, and then in the field of national defense, until after the reform and opening up, the mainland devoted itself to the field of chips and participated in the global chip manufacturing link.
For the chip field, the mainland did not choose to start from scratch at that time, but started to develop from the middle and lower reaches such as assembly work, so there is still a certain gap between the mainland's chip industry and the top of the world, but this does not affect the development of the mainland in related fields.
In order to make the chip field develop faster, the mainland has invested a lot in recent years, and in the first half of this year, it spent 180 billion yuan on the import of chip manufacturing equipment, but because of the suppression of some countries, the mainland can now almost rely on its own strength to explore.
Even without foreign help, the mainland's achievements in the field of semiconductors still attract the world's attention, in the first half of this year, the mainland's chip exports reached 542.77 billion yuan, more than 100 billion more than Korea.
This series of achievements seems to show that China has slowly begun to change from a companion to a leader in the chip industry, but the mainland still has a long way to go to truly achieve this goal.
Although the mainland has been able to manufacture chips by its own strength, the mainland's strength in chip manufacturing equipment is still relatively weak, unable to compete with Korea and other countries, to promote the rapid development of this field, the country and enterprises need to work together, concentrate forces, and promote the development and progress of the entire industry.
In recent years, there has been a certain crisis in the mainland semiconductor industry, and it will not pick up until the end of 2023, and according to statistics released by CINNO Research, the investment amount of mainland semiconductor projects in the first half of this year is about 517.3 billion yuan, which still includes Taiwan, down 37.5% compared with before.
Is this because the development of the chip industry in the mainland is weak? In fact, this is not the case, although the amount of investment has decreased overall, but the investment in semiconductor equipment has increased by 45.9% year-on-year.
In the first seven months of this year, the mainland imported 36,000 units of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, an increase of 17.1% over last year, which shows a very key problem, that is, the mainland has more investment in semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
In fact, a large part of the reason why the mainland's semiconductor industry is stuck is that the mainland is unable to produce today's semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
If this hurdle is crossed, the development of the semiconductor industry in the mainland will be a great leap.
The increase in investment in manufacturing equipment also demonstrates the determination of the mainland to develop the semiconductor industry, marking the good prospects for the development of the mainland's semiconductors, and the mainland has great advantages in the development of semiconductors, both in terms of talents and markets.
With the current recovery of the world economy, the development of the semiconductor industry in the mainland has ushered in an opportunity.
It is not difficult to see from the development path of the semiconductor industry in China and South Korea that the power of national policies is inseparable from the development of the semiconductor industry, and it is believed that the future development of the semiconductor industry in the mainland will be better and better.
Resources
China's semiconductor continues to recover or faces challenges 2024-08-31 China Business News
In the first half of 2024, the mainland exported 542.74 billion yuan of integrated circuits, a year-on-year increase of 25.6% 2024-07-17 IT Home
The semiconductor industry accelerates its recovery in the first half of this year, and China's chip equipment expenditure is nearly 180 billion 2024-09-03 China Business News
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