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2025.04
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Recently, the tariff war between China and the United States has escalated, with the semiconductor industry being at the forefront of this technological competition. In this context, a deep analysis of China’s global import and export data for semiconductor components, as well as the import and export situation of various subcategories of semiconductor components from the U.S., is crucial for understanding the current impact of trade friction on the industry and for formulating future industrial development strategies.
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01
Not Just Domestic Substitution
According to data from the General Administration of Customs of China, the total import value of semiconductor components (HS codes 8541 and 8542) in China reached $412.95 billion in 2024, while the total export value reached $207.98 billion.
Looking back over the past three years, the total import and export value of China’s semiconductor components has remained relatively stable. However, if we exclude price factors and focus solely on import and export quantities, we can clearly see the significant development trend of the domestic semiconductor component industry: the trend of domestic substitution is advancing at an astonishing speed, and products are accelerating their export. Between 2022 and 2024, the import quantity dropped sharply from 285 million units to 131 million units, nearly halving; while the export quantity increased from 8.996 billion units to 12.668 billion units, achieving a leap forward.
Data Source: General Administration of Customs of China, compiled by Eefocus
This change is the result of long-term accumulation and policy promotion of China’s semiconductor industry. In recent years, the government has strongly supported the semiconductor industry, providing preferential treatment in terms of funding, technology, and talent. Many domestic companies have increased R&D investment, broken through technical bottlenecks, and made key progress in chip design, manufacturing, packaging, and testing. As the quality and performance of domestic semiconductor products improve, the recognition of domestic products in the domestic market continues to rise, accelerating the process of import substitution. At the same time, Chinese semiconductor products, with their high cost-performance advantage, are gradually establishing a foothold in the international market, with export scale continuously expanding.
02
Ranking of Import and Export Trade Partners
In 2024, the top 10 import trade partners for China’s semiconductor components, ranked by import value, are Taiwan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, the United States, Singapore, the Philippines, and Ireland. Among them, the import value of semiconductor components from the United States to China is $12.8 billion, accounting for 3.1% of China’s total semiconductor component imports.
Data Source: General Administration of Customs of China, compiled by Eefocus
Chips are highly globalized products, and it is common in the chip industry for a chip to be designed in the United States, manufactured in Taiwan or South Korea, and finally packaged and tested in Southeast Asia or China. As the world’s largest producer of electronic terminal products, China’s main trade partners for semiconductor component imports are countries and regions with significant chip foundry or packaging capacity. Among them, Taiwan accounts for a large portion of the global advanced process chip production capacity, and semiconductor chips rank first among the top ten goods exported to mainland China.
Moreover, since most global chip giants are American companies, if we consider the country of origin of semiconductor design companies, the absolute amount and proportion of semiconductor components imported from the U.S. to China would be much larger.
In 2024, the top 10 export trade partners for China’s semiconductor components, ranked by export value, are Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, and Brazil. Among them, the export value of semiconductor components from China to the United States is $3.18 billion, ranking 11th, accounting for only 1.53% of China’s total semiconductor component exports.
Data Source: General Administration of Customs of China, compiled by Eefocus
Hong Kong serves as a major export transit hub for China’s semiconductor components, accounting for a significant share of exports.
Additionally, Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as India, have also imported a substantial amount of semiconductor components from China as their industrialization process accelerates.
It is worth mentioning that the semiconductor components exported from China to South Korea and Taiwan mainly consist of “other integrated circuits used as memory.” In 2024, China exported “other integrated circuits used as memory” worth $16.3 billion and $10.9 billion to the two regions, respectively, accounting for 75.2% and 54.8% of the total export value of semiconductor components from China to South Korea and Taiwan, which are primarily used for further packaging and testing or as intermediate products for chip manufacturing.
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03
Trade in Semiconductor Components with the U.S.
In 2024, China’s import and export values of semiconductor devices with the U.S. were $12.8 billion and $3.18 billion, respectively, with integrated circuits dominating the trade. The import and export values of integrated circuits between China and the U.S. were $11.75 billion and $2.22 billion, while the import and export values of sensors, power devices, optoelectronic devices, and other discrete devices were relatively small.
Data Source: General Administration of Customs of China, compiled by Eefocus
Specifically, the subcategories of integrated circuits include processors, memory, amplifiers, and other integrated circuits. Among them, the import and export values of processors between China and the U.S. are relatively large, with import and export values of $8.68 billion and $1.58 billion, respectively. Although the import and export values of amplifiers and other integrated circuits are relatively small, they show a significant net import status, with China’s import value of amplifiers from the U.S. being $730 million, while the export value during the same period was only $40 million; the import value of other integrated circuits from the U.S. was $2.24 billion, while the export value was only $260 million.
Data Source: General Administration of Customs of China, compiled by Eefocus
From the data, it can be seen that China’s trade deficit in semiconductor devices with the U.S. is significant, especially in high-end chip areas such as processors and amplifiers. This trade pattern reflects China’s continued dependence on the U.S. in the semiconductor field, which is only based on the trade classification of semiconductor device production capacity.
In the context of high tariffs in China-U.S. trade, with the notice from the China Semiconductor Industry Association suggesting that “integrated circuits,” whether packaged or unpackaged, should be declared at customs based on the location of the “wafer fabrication plant” as the country of origin, it means that the production capacity of China’s semiconductor components is being de-Americanized, while also helping to promote the improvement of domestic wafer manufacturing capabilities.
04
In Conclusion
In the current reshaping of the global semiconductor industry landscape, despite the numerous challenges faced by China’s semiconductor industry, the sharp reduction in the quantity of imported semiconductor components and the leap in exports demonstrate the vigorous momentum of domestic substitution. The U.S. technology blockade and trade friction have also, to some extent, accelerated China’s capability building in the semiconductor field. With continuous technological accumulation, rapid product iteration, mature industrial chain support, and a massive terminal market, China’s semiconductor industry is bound to achieve a magnificent transformation from a follower to a leader on the global semiconductor stage.
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