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China's huge smart industry, With the arrival of digital intelligence in a new phase, especially the emergence of emerging industries such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, the demand for integrated circuit industries and products is facing higher levels and more. High-level explosive opportunities, which are the realistic basis for the development of integrated circuit industries in multiple places.
In the new round of high-tech-based transformation, integrated circuits have become a competing industry in various regions. The huge market demand has spawned a huge industrial operation space and is being sharply pinpointed by the local government.
On March 2nd, Hua Hong Semiconductor Wuxi Project (Phase 1) was formally launched with a total investment of more than US$10 billion. On March 27, Ziguang Group and Chongqing officially signed an agreement, and the integrated circuit design and manufacturing with a registered capital of 100 billion yuan. Supporting projects. This year, SMIC (Shanghai), Glofangd (Chengdu) and TSMC (Nanjing) are expected to start production.
The global IC market has achieved the largest increase in recent years in 2017. In China, integrated circuits have replaced crude oil as the largest import commodity, and the China Semiconductor Industry Association 2017 “China IC Industry Operation Status” shows that according to customs statistics, 2017 China imported 260.14 billion U.S. dollars in integrated circuits, with a trade deficit of 193.26 billion U.S. dollars.
SEMI data shows that the world will launch 62 semiconductor fabs between 2017 and 2020, of which 26 will be located in China, accounting for 42% of the global total. In the 2018 government work report, integrated circuits were first listed as manufactured. The first place in the industry's work focus.
'The golden period of industrial development has come', 25-year-old Wuxi Semiconductor Industry Association Secretary-General Huang Anjun told 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the biggest opportunity is that Moore's Law has approached the limit in the physical level, entered the post-Moore era, the global positive At the stage of technological breakthrough, this just brought precious time and space for the rise of the integrated circuit industry in China. China also ushered in the third international transfer of the integrated circuit industry.
On March 30, the Ministry of Finance and other agencies jointly issued the “Circular on Issues Concerning Corporate Income Tax on Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Enterprises” to launch a new policy to accelerate the process of localization of China's integrated circuit industry. This will vigorously promote the pursuit of high-end manufacturing.
Xu Juyan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that the intensive features of integrated circuits, such as large investment and multi-talent, determine the methodologies for the development of local government and industrial investors.
Wei Shaojun, professor of Tsinghua University and director of microelectronics, said that relevant departments should fully realize the importance of developing integrated circuits for China and actively carry out reforms and innovations to provide a favorable environment for industrial development.
Aligning with the World: Integrating Upstream Design Firms
The integrated circuit and chip industry is an important symbol of a country’s scientific and technological strength. It is a basic, leading industry that is widely used in computers, network communications, consumer electronics, and automotive industries. The narrowing of the gap with the world level is an industry investor. And the direction of practitioners' efforts.
From the perspective of the industrial chain, integrated circuits can be divided into three links: design, manufacturing, and packaging and testing. From the current practice in China, the projects planned or launched are mainly concentrated in the manufacturing sector, while the packaging and testing industry has the top three rankings in the world. The weak point of the enterprise is its design.
The production process of integrated circuits is based on circuit design, designed by a design company, then commissioned by the chip manufacturer to produce wafers, and then commissioned by the packaging factory for packaging testing, and finally sold to electronic whole product companies. In terms of design, it is used. Processing technology, a group of WeChat electronic circuits integrated on a small piece of semiconductor wafer. Therefore, a qualitative change in chip technology and design, packaging technology, will lead the chip field into a new realm, China may face a major opportunity period.
Zhang Lixin, chairman of Wuxi Xinpeng Microelectronics Co., Ltd., told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that design is an upstream of the industrial chain, it is an innovation-intensive, light asset industry, and it is very important for the realization of the strategy of 'information security and self-controllability'.
For the long-term goal of the IC industry, according to the “Thirteenth Five-Year” national strategic emerging industry development plan, to be bigger and stronger, and to reach 40%, 70% self-sufficiency rate in 2020, 2025 respectively.
It is because of the weak design that core technologies are subject to foreign countries. For example, memory is almost completely dependent on imports. High-end chips are highly dependent on imports. The overall level of domestic CPUs still lags behind the international mainstream for 3-5 years. The computing architecture still relies on international x86. ARM, MIPS and other major architectures are authorized.
Yu Kaikang, deputy director of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, told reporters that the reason why design can't rapidly approach international standards is because the industry's particularity is determined, because it is highly in need of innovation, high-level talents gather, and long-term accumulation can lead to breakthroughs.
Another reason is that the United States is still in the first phalanx of international integrated circuits, and it has almost occupied the world's civil sphere. However, markets and consumers over the years have formed a path to development and use of the design of the United States.
"From the very beginning, it was the design of a U.S. company that would be difficult to get rid of over a long period of time." Mei Bin, general manager of Zhongkei Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. explained to the reporter. Zhao Cheng, chief researcher at Caitong Communication Electronics, pointed out that the semiconductor started. In the United States, industrial transfer to Japan, South Korea, to Taiwan, and finally to China.
The first-mover advantage of the United States can hardly be avoided in reality. 'For example, the patent of one of our products is only authorized in the United States before it can be accepted by more downstream companies because it represents the highest level.' Wuxi Lixin Microelectronics Co., Ltd. The deputy general manager and secretary of Dongcheng Lin expressed to the reporter.
Many companies interviewed believe that because China’s protection of high-tech property rights needs to be improved, in the face of huge market demand, many companies are waiting for others to innovate and then imitate manufacturing. This is one of the important factors that restrict the development of the industry.
According to various surveys conducted by 21st Century Business Herald reporters, the domestic integrated circuit industry has reached a world advanced level in some market segments, but the overall status of technology and high-end products relying on imports has not changed. At the same time, due to differences in statistical standards , The industry self-sufficiency rate is only nearly 30%.
Regarding the status quo of China's integrated circuit design industry, Xu Wei, the party committee secretary and executive vice president of Shanghai Huahong Geli Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., told reporters of the 21st Century Business Herald that for cities where the industry has advantages and large projects support, the government can A number of policies were introduced to promote the integration and reorganization of design companies. Taking the 1380 design enterprises in the country as an example, the overall situation was small and scattered. For example, the first 191 enterprises could be integrated and could account for 90% of the national market share.
Local competitions: Beware of longer replacement periods for basic materials
When many areas actively promote the integration of IC industry projects, what effect will this industry have on urban transformation? How can local governments promote this?
According to statistics from the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, in 2015, IC projects were mainly driven by foreign investment and concentrated on manufacturing, such as the Intel Dalian project, the UMC Xiamen project, and the Powerlift Hefei project, etc.; Such as Wuhan Xinxin, Changjiang Storage, Nanjing TSMC, CMOS sensor plant Huai'an project, US AOS company Chongqing project, Fujian Jinhua storage, SMIC Shanghai and Shenzhen project and Huali Microelectronics Phase II, etc., focused on manufacturing and design R&D. .
According to incomplete statistics, in recent years China has invested more than RMB 350 billion in integrated circuit manufacturing. According to the 'Chinese speed' of the project, 2018-2019 will usher in the peak period of capacity release.
Li Xinyan, executive director of China Resources Investment Co., Ltd., told 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the huge intelligent industry in China has entered the new stage with digital intelligence, especially the rise of emerging industries such as Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. The demand for integrated circuit industry and products faces explosive opportunities at a higher level and higher levels. This is a realistic basis for the development of integrated circuit industries in multiple places.
Compared with the above cities, Wuxi was once the most important integrated circuit industrial base. Historically, it pioneered the domestic foundry foundry, once the largest 6-inch wafer foundry base in China, once occupying 70% of the domestic market. Wuxi has thus become the southern base of China Microelectronics, and is also one of the only national microelectronics high-tech industrial bases identified by the National Development and Reform Commission (another Shanghai).
In 2017, Wuxi integrated circuits achieved an output value of 89.27 billion yuan, of which the design industry ranks fourth in the country, the manufacturing industry ranks third in the country, and the packaging and testing industry ranks second in the country.
The industry foundation, talent gathering, production technology, manufacturing advantages, and packaging have reached the world standard, etc. It is our advantage to develop integrated circuits. 'Wang Yubo, Director of Electronic Information Industry Department of Wuxi City Economic and Information Commission, told reporters of the 21st Century Business Herald Wuxi not only possesses terminal demand advantages accumulated in the industrial highlands such as the Internet of Things, but also has a number of leading enterprises in the field of packaging and testing in the area of jurisdiction. The basic conditions of industrial ecology are good.
The 21st Century Business Herald reporter discovered during the interview that all localities have realized that the integrated circuit industry is a typical double-minded intensive industry. Therefore, their development is doomed not to rely on single breakthroughs, and they need to attract talents, invest funds, and construct the industrial chain ecology. The three-pronged approach focuses on these three core areas. It focuses on talent, capital, institutional environment, organizational innovation and mechanisms, etc. For example, there is no cap on the top talents. ' Support policy.
Li Xinyan believes that in recent years there has been an anti-globalization phenomenon in some areas, and international trade frictions have increased. As a large-scale project for Chinese imports, it is necessary to lay out localization in advance to avoid the uncertainties of industrial development brought about by trade frictions. Many projects have their own advantages and areas in the industry chain and market segments, which helps to solve the problems encountered in the development.
The integrated circuit industry chain involves basic materials, core algorithms, peripheral consumables, and chip design, packaging and testing, and downstream applications. It is necessary to pay attention to the coordinated development of the industry's ecology. Any short board in the industrial ecological chain may cause the efficiency to not reach the limit.
'After decades of hard work, on the basis of integrated circuit materials, some products have replaced 60% of imports, and promote the use of companies to reduce the cost of 30%. ' Jiangyin Runma Electronic Materials Co., Ltd. Chairman Goosyong told reporters in the 21st Century Business Herald. However, under the new round of development competition, substitution of imports is becoming more and more difficult. 'Over the past three years, one or a few imports of integrated circuit basic materials can be replaced, but now this cycle has been pulled. The long trend, because foreign countries are also progressing. '
Some business people believe that local governments need to firmly grasp the window of strategic opportunities, work hard on industrial planning, environmental services, and micro-incentives, further enhance and consolidate industrial advantages, increase investment at a higher level, and allow integration. Circuit industry health development.
Outside Big Funds: Market Innovation Forces
From existing, under construction, and planning projects, in conjunction with local industrial development plans, 21st Century Business Herald reporter found that foreign-funded enterprises have preempted layout, state-owned enterprises and private forces are accelerating. Therefore, how to form and establish key core technologies The generation mechanism, and based on this as a basis to promote and lead the development of the industry, to enhance the domestic demand satisfaction and international competitiveness of related industries, it is necessary to form and establish related clusters of leading companies in science and technology. There is an urgent need for large companies with large scales. A small company that needs a lot of energy and innovation to create a harmonious symbiotic ecosystem.
Looking at the country’s development plan, I think that under the current situation, state-owned enterprises still need to play a leading role first because IC projects have too much investment and they are slow. “ Xu Wei told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter. He believes that Hua Hong’s project in Wuxi is essentially building a supermolar process, which is the basis for the new technology industries such as 5G. Only in this way can we better cope with international trade conflicts and achieve independent and controllable technical security in the future.
In fact, in addition to local governments, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (large fund) also plays an important role.
'State-owned investment has huge capital advantages, but there are two main problems. First, there are too many rules and regulations. Second, from the perspective of existing investment projects, the focus is on mature manufacturing projects. Innovation is not enough.' Wei Shaojun's 21st Century Economy Reporter analysis, IC is a highly market-oriented industry, the key is to build a good ecological environment for industrial development.
In local government planning, a common practice is to establish a local-led fund to promote development and use capital as a link to promote the coordinated development of venture capital institutions and industry leading companies and innovative companies. In this way, social capital can be brought into The related industries invest in and enlarge the influence of government funds and the coverage of the industry. Zhu Changyi, vice president and director of Changdian Group, told reporters that he is communicating with related departments and hopes to become one of the fund's contributors to the upstream industry. Chain expansion, using the advantages of industry leading companies, to provide better industrial support for chip design companies.
For local governments, they not only need to introduce large companies with industry influence, but also need to encourage small groups of innovation and entrepreneurship to play their enthusiasm. The VC funds, layout chip design teams and companies in the integrated circuit sector are the main components, taking into account the application The downstream demand side, through the barriers between downstream demand and the upstream industry, accelerates the process of technological industrialization.
According to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, the demand for talent in the IC industry is extremely strong, and the salary of talented people has been inverted relative to developed countries and regions. A large project often requires thousands of R&D teams. Yao Dongwei, Deputy General Manager of China Resources Wuxi Microelectronics Group The company said that for high-end talents, front-line employees are lacking all year round. 'If there are particularly suitable senior talents and teams, we are even willing to adopt more flexible ways to break through existing mechanisms.'
'According to the projects invested by 2020, the talent gap is about 80,000 people.' Wei Shaojun told reporters in the 21st Century Business Herald that due to factors such as the allocation of educational resources and restrictions on enrollment, the higher education system needs to undergo comprehensive innovation and innovation. To meet future talent needs.