China has become world's largest, fastest-growing IC market

SHANGHAI - China has become the world's largest and fastest-growing integrated chip (IC) market, experts said Wednesday at the ongoing IC China 2020 expo held in Shanghai.

China's IC industry has seen an average compound annual growth rate of more than 20 percent. In 2019, the country's IC industry reached a size of more than 700 billion yuan ($103.1 billion), up by 15.8 percent year-on-year, said Yang Xudong, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Currently, the country accounts for nearly 50 percent of the global market share, Yang noted, adding that foreign-invested enterprises contribute more than 30 percent of IC sales revenue on the Chinese mainland.

The semiconductor industry is a global industry, and no country is isolated from the entire industrial chain, said Keith D Jackson, 2020 chair of the Washington-based Semiconductor Industry Association, at the event, adding that the Chinese government has abided by its commitments to opening up and stabilizing foreign trade and investment, which has bolstered the confidence of foreign enterprises.

Zhou Zixue, chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, said despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in demand for online office, video conferencing, and online lectures brought new opportunities for the semiconductor industry.

"In the future, China's semiconductor industry will continue to strengthen cooperation and communication with the global semiconductor industry, expand opening-up and share the fruits of global semiconductor industry development," Zhou said.