In July, China witnessed significant progress in over 45 semiconductor projects, totaling an investment of more than RMB80 billion ($11.02 billion). Automotive electronics emerged as the leading field, constituting about 23% of these projects. The surge in investments can be attributed to the automotive chip shortage, as indicated by a recent JW Insights report.
Among the projects, there were over 20 newly signed agreements and more than 15 projects in various stages of completion and commissioning. Besides automotive electronics, investments were also made in materials, equipment, packaging, and manufacturing sectors.
Product-oriented projects garnered the highest investment, surpassing RMB40 billion ($5.51 billion) and becoming the most popular category in July in China. Capacity expansion focused on critical areas such as GPUs, 5G communication chips, and industrial sensors. However, automotive electronics, including power devices, automatic driving temperature sensors, and car-grade MCUs, stood out as the prime areas of investment, supporting the domestic industrial chains in this domain.
Companies like Yuxin Semiconductor, Yuexin Semiconductor, and Guangchu Technology capitalized on this market opportunity by making specific investments.
The sensor market has experienced robust growth due to the development of intelligence and automotive applications. Institutional statistics project that the global sensor market size will reach $173.75 billion by 2022, with a year-on-year rise of 8.17% amounting to $13.12 billion over the previous year. Notably, Chinese players such as Guangchu Technology, Nernst, and Ferrotec actively participated in sensor investments in July.
The majority of semiconductor projects in July were concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and central China regions. Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai recorded the highest number of projects, followed by Anhui, Sichuan, and Guangdong. This distribution exemplifies the advantages of the industry ecosystem in the Yangtze River Delta region, contributing significantly to the number of semiconductor projects in July.
