China is overtaking the US in semiconductor manufacturing. A number of reports by industry association SEMI show that the number and productivity of plants for making microchips is expanding in China as it declines in the US.
As Quartz reports, consumption of semiconductor materials in North America has dropped by $250 million since 2008 and now sits at $4.74 billion.
And in China consumption of the same material has increased by 42% to $5.07 billion over the same time.
At the same time, production of microchips in Japan is declining rapidly. Since 2008, the figure has dropped by 8% to $8.35 billion. The figure in 2008 was almost $10 billion.
According to Quartz, as microchips become harder to make, their production is becoming consolidated into the hands of a small number of manufacturers, located in North America, Taiwan, South Korea and China.
The rise of China in this sector reflects the nation’s increasing manufacturing strength in general.