By Greg Gao

In the first half of 2022, China imported IC of RMB1.3511 trillion (about $200 billion) in value, a 5.5% increase compared with the same period of last year, and a quantity of f 279.7 billion units, down 10.4% year-on-year. It is the latest statistics released by the General Administration of Customs of China.  

Meanwhile, in the first half of 2022, China exported 141 billion IC units, down 6.8% year-on-year, and the total export amount was RMB499.3 billion ($74 billion), a year-on-year increase of 16.4%.

According to the China National Bureau of Statistics, China’s IC output totaled 166.1 billion units in the first six months of this year, down 6.3% year-on-year. This is the first time since 2009 that China has experienced negative growth in semiconductor output.

China’s total import & export value reached RMB19.8 trillion ($2.9 trillion) in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 9.4%. 

Among them, the total value of exports was RMB11.14 trillion ($1.65 trillion), an increase of 13.2%; 

The total value of imports was RMB8.66 trillion ($1.28 trillion), an increase of 4.8%. Semiconductor imports account for about 15.6% of total imports and have replaced oil as the most imported commodity in China, data from the General Administration of Customs of China indicated.

As the transformation towards digitalization and intelligence continues, the demand for semiconductors in China is expected to keep growing in the future, JW Insights noted.