Manufacturing Superpower China Imports $362 Billion in Chips in Just 7 Months

[ChineseTiger1986]

It's between 5% to 10% now.

It will soon be evolved with the induction of the new EUV.

 

[kankan326]

The main reason is the periodic price increases in memory and storage.

Correct. China didn't import more. Just paid more for soaring prices.

 

[Nan Yang]

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China's customs data for July 2026 show imports of electronic integrated circuits worth about $63.83 billion in that single month. A UIBE trade-data analysis gives a closely related “chip products” figure of about $63.92 billion, up 70.9% YoY.

Even more remarkable, during January–July 2026, China imported roughly $361.8-362.4 billion of IC/chip products. Its largest sources were Taiwan (~$112.45bn), South Korea (~$108.89bn) and Japan (~$31.93bn).

There is also a fascinating change in China's import structure. January-July IC imports were up 58.3% in value but only about 8.2% in physical units. That means the average imported value per IC rose enormously, roughly 46% by one calculation.

And China simultaneously exported about $216bn of ICs during Jan–July. So its gross semiconductor trade looked approximately like:
IC imports → $361.8bn
IC exports → $216.0bn
Net IC imports → ~$145.8bn
Despite possessing one of the world's deepest semiconductor manufacturing ecosystems.

No major manufacturing economy has a perfectly national supply chain. China importing ~$64bn of ICs in one month is an extreme contemporary demonstration of it.

Imports are trending downwards.
Exports are trending upwards.

Sounds like a China is on the right track.