By Greg Gao

China’s integrated circuits output posted a 26.7 percent year-on-year decline to 22.5 billion units in October amid weak demand, marking the biggest monthly decrease on record for the country’s IC industry, data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently showed.

From January to October, China’s output of integrated circuits was 267.5 billion units, a year-on-year decrease of 12.3%. 

The chip output in October was also lower than the 25.9 billion units produced in April, when citywide Covid-19 lockdowns disrupted manufacturing activities in Shanghai and other mainland production hubs. Weak domestic demand and fresh US tech export controls may have played a role in the sharp decline of output, as overall economic growth momentum weakened due to the epidemic resurgence in October, according to SCMP.

In October, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 5.0% year-on-year. From a month-on-month perspective, the added value of industries above designated size increased by 0.33% from the previous month. From January to October, the amount increased by 4.0% year-on-year, NBS’s data showed.

In October, China’s output of automobiles was 2.559 million units, a year-on-year increase of 8.6%, of which the output of new energy vehicles was 752,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 84.8%. The output of microcomputer equipment was 35.21 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 16.6%, while the output of mobile communication handsets was 154.14 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%, of which the output of smartphones was 113.95 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%, statistics from NBS indicated.