Stefan Mileschin

The Chinese government is committed to developing its own semiconductor business and it’s pretty clear that nothing is going to stop its advances.

Now market research company Trendforce has revealed the trends in the Chinese semiconductor market which is describes as a “growing challenge” to US and European IC manufacturers.

Trendforce said Powerchip started building a 12-inch fab in Hefei in China. The 12-inch factory is a joint venture between Taiwanese Powerchip and Hefei City Government and will start operation in 2017 and produce 40,000 wafers a month.

Trendforce pointed out that Chinese IC designers have had generous government subsidies and companies including HiSilicon and Spreadtrum are in the vanguard of the shannel.

While fabless IC firms onlyhave 18.5 percent market share worldwide, that figure is sure to rise in the next five years.

China’s own homegrown foundry company SMIC has three eight inch fabs in three locations and also two 12-inch wafer fabs in Shanghai and Beijing.

Both Taiwanese foundries TSMC and UMC also have fabs in mainland China.

http://www.techeye.net/chips/china-t...-european-fabs