Opinionated - China Chipping Away to Semiconductor Dominance

[bolo]

Taiwan and South Korea are just the foundry for the western semiconductor.

Whereas we are initiating our own R&D infrastructure, and that's why not only Taiwan and South Korea will get stomped, now even Japan looks very weak compared to us.

We are eyeing to the world class league.

good. Especially those kimchis. I can't wait until samsung goes down as it represents 19% of SK gdp.

 

[karan21]

Indeed China is moving in the right direction. While India here sits idle rolling out free populist schemes. Electronics is somewhere India can dominate, but government is not even trying or I should say not trying hard enough.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

US Korea and Taiwan each have one giant with Intel, Samsung, and TSMC respectively.

The overall picture:

US is still way ahead in overall Semiconductor design.

Taiwan is brilliant in Foundries.

Samsung is a well rounded company, with memory, design, and foundry business. Koreans dominate memory.

Not much different from previous years.

Also the number 20 in this list has sales less than 10% of the leader, hence, the value of companies below 20 will keep decreasing fast.

 

[Providence]

Chinese people had me believe that they were world leaders in semiconductor tech

 

[Echo_419]

Chinese people had me believe that they were world leaders in semiconductor tech

Looks like the West & its allies still maintain a technological lead over the Chinese

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Chinese people had me believe that they were world leaders in semiconductor tech

This is the start from where the whole thread goes haywire.

No need to make remarks that can inflame sensitivities.

 

[Keel]

4/09/2015
China's Homegrown Semiconductor Firms Poised To Gain From Internet Of Things Spending

Booming sales and manufacturing of smartphones in China by upstart brands such as Xiaomi have helped to make the country’s electronics industry one of the world’s largest. Yet mainland companies had a modest ranking in a report last week about one of the industry’s key components – semiconductors. China-based chip businesses had only 3% of worldwide integrated circuit sales in 2014, compared with 55% for No. 1, the United States, according to industry researcher IC Insights. South Korea ranked No. 2 with 18%, Japan was third with 9%, and Taiwan was fourth with 7%.

One bright spot for Chinese firms, however, was the pace of their growth, especially gains at chip design houses that contract out their manufacturing to other firms. China’s market share of global sales by those “fabless” design companies rose to 9% last year, compared with 5% in 2010. Increased sales among the group helped an overall 26% increase in revenue at China-based semiconductor makers last year, tops in the world.

What’s next for China’s IC industry? I exchanged with IC Insights President Bill McClean this week about the outlook. Excerpts follow.

Q. How do you size up the performance of China’s IC industry in the past year?

A. China’s IC market outperformed the total IC industry growth. The Chinese market (i.e., consumption) for ICs increased 13% from $88 billion in 2013 to $99 billion in 2014. In comparison, the total IC market increased 9%. Chinese IC companies increased their sales of ICs by 26% last year, primarily based on the success of the fabless Chinese IC suppliers.

Q. In which product areas and technologies do you see the best opportunities for mainland IC companies during the period? What type of businesses would be best poised to benefit from growth?

A. Logic and processor ICs for smartphones and IoT will be the best opportunities for Chinese producers. Chinese companies are not major producers of analog or memory products and are unlikely to enter these segments in any significant way. Most of these devices will be provided by fabless Chinese IC suppliers.

China's Homegrown Semiconductor Firms Poised To Gain From Internet Of Things Spending - Forbes

Q. To the extent that China has a chance to gain market share in the next 3-5 years, who would likely lose market share and why? What strategies to counter that loss of market share might be pursued?

A. The companies most likely to loose market share are those currently supplying logic ICs for low- to mid-range smartphones. One strategy for a non-Chinese company to counter a loss in market share to the Chinese companies might be to form a “partnership” with Chinese IC suppliers, similar to Intel’s $1.5 billion investment in Tsinghua Unigroup — the owner of Spreadtrum and RDA.

–Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
Q. Which mainland Chinese companies would you says did relatively well and why in 2014?
A. Two of the star performers with regard to Chinese suppliers were its two largest fabless IC suppliers—HiSilicon and Spreadtrum. These companies are riding the wave of the low- to mid-range smartphone boom in China by supplying the local Chinese smartphone producers ICs targeting these applications.

Q. What will be the drivers of IC industry growth in China in the next 3-5 years and why?

A. Most likely, the smartphone and Internet of Things (IoT) will be the biggest two driving forces over the next 3-5 years with the IoT being more of a long term driver and the smartphone having its biggest impact in the relatively near term.




SMIC Receives "2014 Foundry Supplier of the Year" Award from Qualcomm

SHANGHAI, June 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981), China's largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry, today announced its receipt of the "2014 Foundry Supplier of the Year" award from customer Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Qualcomm Technologies, one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor vendors and a world leader in 3G, 4G and next-generation wireless technologies, gave the award to SMIC in recognition of its achievement in fabricating Qualcomm Technologies' power management integrated circuits (PMIC). SMIC has been manufacturing Qualcomm Technologies' PMIC products since 2009 and this award demonstrates SMIC's excellence in its technical reliability, product quality, and customer service.

"It's a great honor to receive this award from Qualcomm Technologies." said Mike Rekuc, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, SMIC. "We greatly appreciate Qualcomm Technologies' trust in SMIC and will continue to cooperate closely in both mature and advanced processes as a long-term partner."

"SMIC is an important supplier to Qualcomm Technologies, and we highly recognize the success SMIC has achieved in serving our needs with high-quality products," said Roawen Chen, Senior Vice President of QCT global operations, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "As we've expanded our work with SMIC to include 28nm technology and wafer manufacturing service, we look forward to SMIC becoming a more important supplier in our supply chain strategy."

About SMIC

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC") (NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China. SMIC provides integrated circuit (IC) foundry and technology services at 0.35-micron to 28-nanometer. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC has a 300mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) and a 200mm mega-fab in Shanghai; a 300mm mega-fab and a second majority owned 300mm fab under development for advance nodes in Beijing; and 200mm fabs in Tianjin and Shenzhen. SMIC also has marketing and customer service offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, and a representative office in Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.smics.com.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Who cares?

Taiwan and SK are merely two foundries for the US semiconductor, and they top the list mean that the US semiconductor is still very dominant, so it will only compel China to put more effort on this domain.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Who cares?

Taiwan and SK are merely two foundries for the US semiconductor, and they top the list mean that the US semiconductor is still very dominant, so it will only compel China to put more effort on this domain.

What do you mean by the statement that Taiwan and Sk are "merely" two foundries for the US semiconductor?

Memory is designed and made by Samsung and SK Hynix almost exclusively, and are used in everyone's mobiles.

Similarly, a lot of what China makes is also made for US or Europe.

Everyone has their place in the value chain, and I don't think it valuable to disparage anyone.

4/09/2015
China's Homegrown Semiconductor Firms Poised To Gain From Internet Of Things Spending

Booming sales and manufacturing of smartphones in China by upstart brands such as Xiaomi have helped to make the country’s electronics industry one of the world’s largest. Yet mainland companies had a modest ranking in a report last week about one of the industry’s key components – semiconductors. China-based chip businesses had only 3% of worldwide integrated circuit sales in 2014, compared with 55% for No. 1, the United States, according to industry researcher IC Insights. South Korea ranked No. 2 with 18%, Japan was third with 9%, and Taiwan was fourth with 7%.

One bright spot for Chinese firms, however, was the pace of their growth, especially gains at chip design houses that contract out their manufacturing to other firms. China’s market share of global sales by those “fabless” design companies rose to 9% last year, compared with 5% in 2010. Increased sales among the group helped an overall 26% increase in revenue at China-based semiconductor makers last year, tops in the world.

What’s next for China’s IC industry? I exchanged with IC Insights President Bill McClean this week about the outlook. Excerpts follow.

Q. How do you size up the performance of China’s IC industry in the past year?

A. China’s IC market outperformed the total IC industry growth. The Chinese market (i.e., consumption) for ICs increased 13% from $88 billion in 2013 to $99 billion in 2014. In comparison, the total IC market increased 9%. Chinese IC companies increased their sales of ICs by 26% last year, primarily based on the success of the fabless Chinese IC suppliers.

Q. In which product areas and technologies do you see the best opportunities for mainland IC companies during the period? What type of businesses would be best poised to benefit from growth?

A. Logic and processor ICs for smartphones and IoT will be the best opportunities for Chinese producers. Chinese companies are not major producers of analog or memory products and are unlikely to enter these segments in any significant way. Most of these devices will be provided by fabless Chinese IC suppliers.

China's Homegrown Semiconductor Firms Poised To Gain From Internet Of Things Spending - Forbes

Q. To the extent that China has a chance to gain market share in the next 3-5 years, who would likely lose market share and why? What strategies to counter that loss of market share might be pursued?

A. The companies most likely to loose market share are those currently supplying logic ICs for low- to mid-range smartphones. One strategy for a non-Chinese company to counter a loss in market share to the Chinese companies might be to form a “partnership” with Chinese IC suppliers, similar to Intel’s $1.5 billion investment in Tsinghua Unigroup — the owner of Spreadtrum and RDA.

–Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
Q. Which mainland Chinese companies would you says did relatively well and why in 2014?
A. Two of the star performers with regard to Chinese suppliers were its two largest fabless IC suppliers—HiSilicon and Spreadtrum. These companies are riding the wave of the low- to mid-range smartphone boom in China by supplying the local Chinese smartphone producers ICs targeting these applications.

Q. What will be the drivers of IC industry growth in China in the next 3-5 years and why?

A. Most likely, the smartphone and Internet of Things (IoT) will be the biggest two driving forces over the next 3-5 years with the IoT being more of a long term driver and the smartphone having its biggest impact in the relatively near term.




SMIC Receives "2014 Foundry Supplier of the Year" Award from Qualcomm

SHANGHAI, June 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC"; NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981), China's largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry, today announced its receipt of the "2014 Foundry Supplier of the Year" award from customer Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Qualcomm Technologies, one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor vendors and a world leader in 3G, 4G and next-generation wireless technologies, gave the award to SMIC in recognition of its achievement in fabricating Qualcomm Technologies' power management integrated circuits (PMIC). SMIC has been manufacturing Qualcomm Technologies' PMIC products since 2009 and this award demonstrates SMIC's excellence in its technical reliability, product quality, and customer service.

"It's a great honor to receive this award from Qualcomm Technologies." said Mike Rekuc, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, SMIC. "We greatly appreciate Qualcomm Technologies' trust in SMIC and will continue to cooperate closely in both mature and advanced processes as a long-term partner."

"SMIC is an important supplier to Qualcomm Technologies, and we highly recognize the success SMIC has achieved in serving our needs with high-quality products," said Roawen Chen, Senior Vice President of QCT global operations, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "As we've expanded our work with SMIC to include 28nm technology and wafer manufacturing service, we look forward to SMIC becoming a more important supplier in our supply chain strategy."

About SMIC

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC") (NYSE: SMI; SEHK: 981) is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China. SMIC provides integrated circuit (IC) foundry and technology services at 0.35-micron to 28-nanometer. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC has a 300mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) and a 200mm mega-fab in Shanghai; a 300mm mega-fab and a second majority owned 300mm fab under development for advance nodes in Beijing; and 200mm fabs in Tianjin and Shenzhen. SMIC also has marketing and customer service offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, and a representative office in Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.smics.com.

Right now Market is the only award that matters, and China is starting from a pretty low base.

I actually have a lot of confidence that China will start getting better in Semiconductors over time.

One notable thing everyone's missing here is that slowly people are coming to assemble stuff in India. Foxconn is planning big for India, and hence slowly the Chinese stranglehold over Electronics Manufacturing will ease.

Remember, China manufactures a lot of electronics, and hence, uses semiconductors in their manufacturing. While its use is both for domestic and international market, the semiconductor sales are counted to China.

This is a powerful leverage that China has used. Like more than half of all sales of Qualcomm are to China primarily because that is where electronics are made.

Slowly, China will be loosing that leverage, and Chinese companies will also find it hard to grow.

 

[Keel]

"One notable thing everyone's missing here is that slowly people are coming to assemble stuff in India. Foxconn is planning big for India, and hence slowly the Chinese stranglehold over Electronics Manufacturing will ease.

Remember, China manufactures a lot of electronics, and hence, uses semiconductors in their manufacturing. While its use is both for domestic and international market, the semiconductor sales are counted to China.

This is a powerful leverage that China has used. Like more than half of all sales of Qualcomm are to China primarily because that is where electronics are made.

Slowly, China will be loosing that leverage, and Chinese companies will also find it hard to grow.“

You are ignorant of the deals between SMIC and Qualcomm until my post
Foxconn is just a mobile phone assembly plant not an IC foundry
China will not lose but will gain market share over time

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

"One notable thing everyone's missing here is that slowly people are coming to assemble stuff in India. Foxconn is planning big for India, and hence slowly the Chinese stranglehold over Electronics Manufacturing will ease.

Remember, China manufactures a lot of electronics, and hence, uses semiconductors in their manufacturing. While its use is both for domestic and international market, the semiconductor sales are counted to China.

This is a powerful leverage that China has used. Like more than half of all sales of Qualcomm are to China primarily because that is where electronics are made.

Slowly, China will be loosing that leverage, and Chinese companies will also find it hard to grow.“

You are ignorant of the deals between SMIC and Qualcomm until my post
Foxconn is just a mobile phone assembly plant not an IC foundry
China will not lose but will gain market share over time

It always starts with the assembler, and then the supply chain slowly shifts.

First it will be assembly, and then there will be small accompanying supply chain. Slowly it will rise higher up the value chain.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

What do you mean by the statement that Taiwan and Sk are "merely" two foundries for the US semiconductor?

Memory is designed and made by Samsung and SK Hynix almost exclusively, and are used in everyone's mobiles.

Similarly, a lot of what China makes is also made for US or Europe.

Everyone has their place in the value chain, and I don't think it valuable to disparage anyone.





Right now Market is the only award that matters, and China is starting from a pretty low base.

I actually have a lot of confidence that China will start getting better in Semiconductors over time.

One notable thing everyone's missing here is that slowly people are coming to assemble stuff in India. Foxconn is planning big for India, and hence slowly the Chinese stranglehold over Electronics Manufacturing will ease.

Remember, China manufactures a lot of electronics, and hence, uses semiconductors in their manufacturing. While its use is both for domestic and international market, the semiconductor sales are counted to China.

This is a powerful leverage that China has used. Like more than half of all sales of Qualcomm are to China primarily because that is where electronics are made.

Slowly, China will be loosing that leverage, and Chinese companies will also find it hard to grow.

if you look at market values, US is 55% of the whole market. they are THAT dominant. even Japan and Taiwan are single digits in market share. China also being single digits means it is on the same order of magnitude as Japan which isnt that bad. US is just way too crazy. it's not even a two horse race. it's a one horse stomp .

Also,if you remove memory (which is the lowest value added component) and look only at logic circuits, China fairs alot better since south Korea's huge advantage is gone.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

if you look at market values, US is 55% of the whole market. they are THAT dominant. even Japan and Taiwan are single digits in market share. China also being single digits means it is on the same order of magnitude as Japan which isnt that bad. US is just way too crazy. it's not even a two horse race. it's a one horse stomp .

Also,if you remove memory (which is the lowest value added component) and look only at logic circuits, China fairs alot better since south Korea's huge advantage is gone.

Roger that, Colonel!

 

[Keel]

It always starts with the assembler, and then the supply chain slowly shifts.

First it will be assembly, and then there will be small accompanying supply chain. Slowly it will rise higher up the value chain.

oh that's is why India and Vietnam are the 2 super powa in Asia
Vietnam is having their b-phones too

China is still a backward country with retreating foundries, collapsing economy, taken over the IMO crown by USA, to be beaten by the yankies in supercomputing shortly, cant make a fighter jet in the same high standards as Tejas, submarines are louder than JAV whores, great worries in retaining its positions in aquatic competitions even losing hopes in diving, losing of Sun Yang in 1500 meters and the other athletes are just a massive flop after Kazan ... sounds like you are a lot more pessimistic on China than some fcuk-up Chinese flaggers who are reeking with wasabi in their breath