BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's integrated circuit (IC) industry has seen steady growth and will further develop by tapping domestic demand and integrating with other emerging industries, the China Daily reported Tuesday.
The industry has registered steady growth over the past few years as its scale and competitiveness increased, said Liu Dai, rotating chairman of China Semiconductor Industry Association.
Statistics from the association showed that the industry's total sales revenue surged 20.7 percent year on year to reach 653.2 billion yuan (about 91.7 billion U.S. dollars) last year, while the global annual growth rate contracted by 13.7 percent.
Liu also noted that only 20 percent of the domestic demand for IC products and services have been met by Chinese IC companies, more efforts can be made to cater to booming domestic demand, which in turn will become another growth engine for the companies.
Up to 33.6 percent of Chinese IC companies specialize in packaging, which make wafers into independent computer chips. This ratio, in line with the global average, indicated that the structure of the Chinese IC industry is being optimized, Liu said.
China's packaging sector has taken the lead worldwide, with three companies entering the latest world top 10 list compiled by market consultancy Gartner, said Ye Tianchun, director of the Institute of Microelectronics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The integration of different industries is the right path to take for China's IC industry, said Ding Wenwu, president of the National IC Industry Development Fund Co. Ltd.
As China has been making strides in the development of 5G, artificial intelligence, internet of cars, big data and cloud computing, Chinese IC companies are expected to team up with firms specializing in these emerging industries to take advantage of their opportunities.
