China is aiming to improve the self-sufficiency rate for ICs in the nation to 40% in 2020, and boost the rate further to 70% in 2025, according to Digitimes Research.
China's consumption of ICs grew at a CAGR of 6.8% between 2010 and 2014, said Digitimes Research. The domestic market will reach a scale of US$106.3 billion in 2015, up 8.5% from US$98 billion in 2014.
As the China government continues to pour capital into the local IC design industry sector, the output value of the sector will reach US$19.49 billion in 2015 representing a 21.2% increase from US$16.09 billion in 2014, Digitimes Research noted. The output value of China's IC design sector grew at a CAGR of 31% between 2010 and 2014.
Although China has become the world's largest IC consumer, and the local IC design sector continues to enjoy more than 20% growth in output value, there are several major challenges facing China's overall IC industry, Digitimes Research observed.
Those challenges include the nation's still low self-sufficiency rate for ICs, and the local foundries' less competitiveness against their international peers in terms of technology. Meanwhile, China's local fabless firms are facing bottlenecks to further enhance their IC design capabilities.
The "National Semiconductor Industry Development Guidelines" and "Made in China 2025" were published by China's State Council in June 2014 and May 2015, respectively. Both policies will make a major push in the development of the local IC industry, Digitimes Research believes.
Based on the "National Semiconductor Industry Development Guidelines," a CNY120 billion (US$19 billion) national industry investment fund has been set up to help local foundries finance the build-up of advanced manufacturing processes, and also to assist local IC firms to form mergers and/or make acquisitions internationally, Digitimes Research said.
The "Made in China 2025" clearly outlines that the nation is aiming to raise its self-sufficiency rate for ICs to 40% in 2020, and 70% in 2025, Digitimes Research indicated.
