China's IC foundry industry will register another growth in output next year, driven by the country's efforts in boosting its IC self-sufficiency, as well as international chipmakers' intention of expanding their factory sites locally in China, according to Digitimes Research.
In addition to China-based pure-play foundries, such as SMIC and HLMC, China-based IDM and memory foundries all have plans to not only optimize production efficiency but also build new production lines in 2021, said Digitimes Research. IDMs such as GTA Semiconductor and SiEn (Qingdao) Integrated Circuit will have additional 8-inch fab capacity come online next year.
IC design houses GalaxyCore and Maxscend Microelectronics are building their production lines in-house that will come online in 2021, Digitimes Research indicated. More China-based fabless firms are looking to grow their manufacturing capability to comply with the country's efforts to boost self-sufficiency in semiconductors.
International chipmakers including Samsung and SK Hynix all intend to expand their factory sites locally in China, with additional production capacities set to go online in 2021.
But there are concerns about capital shortages and trade sanctions imposed by the US, which may disrupt the development of China's homegrown IC sectors. The escalating US-China trade disputes have brought uncertainty to SMIC's capacity expansion plan, for instance.