Korea’s Semiconductor Exports to China Increasing

[Daniel Nenni]

Korea's semiconductor exports to China are increasing despite the U.S. sanctions against Huawei.
Even after the United States began to regulate Korean companies’ semiconductor exports to Huawei, Korea's semiconductor exports to China have increased.

Korea’s semiconductors exports to China in the first nine months of 2020 stood at US$28.6 billion, a 7.8 percent increase from a year earlier. China accounted for 41.57 percent of Korea’s total semiconductor exports, the highest since 2016, said the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) on Nov. 9. Korean semiconductor exports to China are expected to swell 3.8 percent on year in October.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were expected to suffer a drop in exports to China from October as the Trump administration's semiconductor export regulations against Huawei came into effect on Sep. 15. However, China’s demand for semiconductors has been growing as the COVID-19 outbreak has subsided in China faster than in other regions, and smartphone makers in China other than Huawei have ramped up their shares of the Chinese market.

The semiconductor sector is not the only one that relies heavily on China. During the same period, Korean petrochemical companies depended on China for 43.3 percent of their exports, the survey showed. In the case of precision machinery exports, the dependence hit 63.64 percent. The need to diversify overseas markets has grown as the U.S.-China conflict could negatively affect Korea’s exports. But Corporate Korea has not been able to break away from its heavy dependence on the Chinese market.

The Korean government is looking for ways to reduce Korean exporters’ growing dependence on the Chinese market. In particular, some experts point out that Korea’s high dependence on China is a risk as U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to push for cooperation with allies, forcing Korea to choose between the United States and China.

"If Korea takes an ambiguous position due to its high dependence on China, it may face the worst situation where Korea loses trust from both the United States and China," a government official said. "Korea needs to address its heavy dependence on the Chinese market, but it is not easy for Corporate Korea to get out of the profitable Chinese market right away."

Korea’s Semiconductor Exports to China Increasing

Even after the United States began to regulate Korean companies’ semiconductor exports to Huawei, Korea's semiconductor exports to China have increased.Kor

www.businesskorea.co.kr

 

[rtrauben]

apple has purchased nearly all of tsmc capacity leaving the rest of the industry
to depend on Samsung. In turn Samsung
is sourcing Huawei. So much for a demilitarized zone. it’s an explosive devdlopment for geopolitics

 

[Daniel Nenni]

This is not true. This is not how the semiconductor industry works, not even close.

TSMC customers sign wafer agreements before the design starts which guarantee them X amount of wafers at X price. This is a legally binding document. The other thing you should know is that TSMC can build a fab in Taiwan faster than a company can design a leading edge SoC/GPU/CPU so do the math.

It's amazing to me that some know nothing person posts that Apple consumes all of TSMC's 5nm wafers and other people use this false information, without fact checking, to disrespect TSMC.

In regards to Samsung, the biggest problem Samsung Foundry has is trust. Trust that your design IP will be safe, trust that Samsung can deliver what is promised, trust that Samsung speaks the truth.

And for people to be spreading false information that benefits Samsung does not help at all.

apple has purchased nearly all of TSMC capacity leaving the rest of the industry to depend on Samsung. In turn Samsung is sourcing Huawei. So much for a demilitarized zone. it’s an explosive development for geopolitics

 

[rtrauben]

TSMC reportedly books its entire 5nm chip production capacity for Apple - Gizmochina

TSMC, the world’s largest chipset manufacturer, had started mass-production of 5nm chips for the past few months. Now, it is being reported that the company’s facility for the production of 5nm chips has been fully booked by Apple. According to the latest report coming from China, the Taiwanese...

www.gizmochina.com

daniel,

you are a bit too harsh on the trigger; the personal attack was uncalled for, regardless of whose forum it is. stay focussed.

here is the basis of my data. what’s yours?

p.s. i slightly mischaractwrizdd the article but the gist still correct apple has a very large percentage capacity of tsmc fy20
5nm capacity. the tsmc capacity quoted by the articles link actually was just the remaining capacity for this fy20),

 

[Daniel Nenni]

Just to be clear:

The author of the article Jeet has zero semiconductor education/ experience so he just cut and pastes his way through life:

TSMC reportedly books its entire 5nm chip production capacity for Apple

"Jeet is a new member of the GizmoChina team. When not writing about tech, you’ll probably find him binge-watch TV shows/movies or reading books."

Did you even check his credentials before taking his cut/paste as fact? Is this really a person you want to play against me? I have 36+ years experience in the semiconductor industry and am considered an expert in the fabless semiconductor ecosystem. That is the basis of my data, first hand experience.

Here is another point of reference: Apple gets a custom version of TSMC processes that is frozen at the end of each year so the iProducts can be delivered in Q4 of the following year without fail. Nobody else has access to this process. So how can Apple reportedly book all of TSMC's 5nm?

The answer of course is they cannot. This was also addressed in the last TSMC investor call. 2020 5nm wafers went to mobile (Apple and Huawei) and HPC (AMD).

Suggestion: The next time you post something without fact checking you should post it as a question rather than a statement of fact if you care about your online credibility. Just my opinion of course.