Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Exclusive-China readying $143 billion package for its
chip firms in face of U.S. curbs -sources
Tue, December 13, 2022 at 3:07 p.m.
By Julie Zhu
HONG KONG (Reuters) -China is
working on a more than 1 trillion yuan ($143 billion) support package for its semiconductor
industry, three sources said, in a major step towards self sufficiency in chips
and to counter U.S. moves aimed at slowing its technological advances.
Beijing plans to roll out what will be one of its biggest
fiscal incentive packages over five years, mainly as subsidies and tax credits
to bolster semiconductor production and research activities at home, said the
sources.
It signals, as analysts have expected, a more direct
approach by China in shaping the future of an industry which has become a
geopolitical hot button due to soaring demand for chips and which Beijing
regards as a cornerstone of its technological might.
It will also likely further raise concerns in the United
States and its allies about China's competition in the semiconductor industry,
say analysts. Some U.S. lawmakers are already worried about China's chip
production capacity build up.
The plan could be implemented as soon as the first quarter
of next year, said two of the sources who declined to be named as they were not
authorized to speak to media.
The majority of the financial assistance would be used to
subsidize the purchases of domestic semiconductor equipment by Chinese firms,
mainly semiconductor fabrication plants, or fabs, they said.
Such companies would be entitled to a 20% subsidy on the
cost of purchases, the three sources said.
The fiscal support plan comes after the U.S. Commerce
Department passed in October a sweeping set of regulations, which could bar
research labs and commercial data centres' access to advanced AI chips, among
other curbs.
The United States has also been lobbying some of its
partners, including Japan and the Netherlands, to tighten
exports to China of equipment used to make semiconductors.
And U.S. President Joe Biden in August signed a landmark
bill to provide $52.7 billion in grants for U.S. semiconductor production and
research as well as tax credit for chip plants estimated to be worth $24
billion.
With the incentive package, Beijing aims to step up support
for Chinese chip firms to build, expand or modernize domestic facilities for
fabrication, assembly, packaging, and research and development, the sources
said.
Beijing's latest plan also includes preferential tax
policies for the country's semiconductor industry, they said.
China's State Council Information Office did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
LIKELY BENEFICIARIES
The beneficiaries will be both state-owned and private
enterprises in the industry, notably large semiconductor equipment firms like NAURA
Technology Group, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc China and Kingsemi,
the sources added.
Some Chinese chip shares in Hong Kong rose sharply after
news of the package. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC)
added more than 8%, sending its daily gain to nearly 10%. Hua Hong
Semiconductor Ltd closed up 17%. Mainland markets were closed when the report
was published.
Achieving self-reliance in technology featured prominently
in President Xi Jinping's full work report at the Communist Party Congress in
October. The term 'technology' was referred to 40 times, up from 17 times in
the report from the 2017 congress.
Xi's call for China to "win the battle" in core
technologies could signal an overhaul in Beijing's approach to advancing its
tech industry, with more state-led spending and intervention to counter U.S.
pressures, analysts have said.
The U.S. sanctions published in October have caused major
overseas-based chip manufacturing equipment companies to cease supplying key
Chinese chipmakers, including Yangtze memory Technologies Co (YMTC) and SMIC,
and makers of advanced artificial intelligence chips to cease supplying
companies and laboratories.
The world's second-largest economy has launched a trade
dispute at the World Trade Organization against the United States over its chip
export control measures, China's commerce ministry said on Monday.
China has long lagged the rest of the world in the chip
manufacturing equipment sector, which remains dominated by companies based in
the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands.
A number of domestic firms have emerged in the past 20
years, but most remain behind their rivals in terms of ability to produce
advanced chips.
NAURA's etching and thermal process equipment, for example,
can only produce 28-nanometer and above chips, relatively mature technologies.
Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co Ltd (SMEE),
China's only lithography company, can produce 90-nanometers chips, well behind
that of the Netherlands' ASML, which is producing those as low as 3 nanometers.
(Reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong; Additional reporting
by Josh Horwitz, Brenda Goh and Jason Xue in Shanghai, Kevin Huang and Xu Jing
in Beijing, Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Lincoln
Feast.)
Translation
香港（路透社） - 三位消息人士稱，中國正在為其半導體行業製定超過
1 萬億元人民幣（1,430
億美元）的一攬子支持計劃，這是朝著芯片自給自足邁出的重要一步，也是為了對抗美國旨在減緩其技術發展步伐的舉措。
消息人士稱，北京計劃推出其最大規模的五年財政刺激計劃之一，主要是通過補貼和稅收抵免來支持國內的半導體生產和研究活動。
正如分析師所預期的那樣，這表明中國在塑造這個行業的未來方面採取了更直接的方式，由於對芯片的需求飆升，該行業已成為地緣政治熱點，北京將其視為其技術實力的基石。
分析師表示，這還可能進一步引起美國及其盟友對中國在半導體行業競爭的擔憂。 一些美國立法者已經開始擔心中國芯片產能的增加。
兩位因未獲授權而不透露姓名的消息人士表示，該計劃最早可能在明年第一季度實施。
他們說，大部分財政援助將用於補貼中國公司購買國內半導體設備，主要是半導體製造廠或 fabs。
三位消息人士稱，這些公司將有權獲得 20% 的採購成本補貼。
財政支持計劃是在美國商務部於 10 月通過了一套全面的法規之後出台的，這些美國法規可能禁止研究實驗室和商業數據中心使用先進的人工智能芯片，以及其他限制措施。
美國還一直在遊說其一些合作夥伴，包括日本和荷蘭，以收緊向中國出口用於製造半導體的設備。
美國總統拜登在 8 月簽署了一項具有里程碑意義的法案，為美國半導體生產和研究提供 527 億美元的贈款，並為估計價值 240 億美元的芯片工廠提供稅收抵免。
消息人士稱，北京通過其激勵方案，旨在加大對中國芯片企業建設、擴建或現代化國內製造、組裝、封裝和研發設施的支持力度。
他們說，北京的最新計劃還包括針對中國半導體行業的稅收優惠政策。
中國國務院新聞辦公室沒有立即回應置評請求。
可能的受益人
消息人士補充說，受益者將是該行業的國有和民營企業，尤其是北方華創科技集團、中微半导体, 和沈阳芯源微电子设备股份有限公司。
消息傳出後，香港部分中國芯片股大幅上漲。 中芯國際
(SMIC) 漲幅超過 8%，日漲幅接近 10%。 華虹集團收漲 17%。 報告發表時，內地市場休市。
習近平主席在 10 月份的共產黨代表大會上的全面工作報告中突出強調了實現科技自立。
“技術” 一詞被提及 40 次，高於 2017 年大會報告中的
17 次。
分析人士表示，習近平呼籲中國在核心技術領域 “打贏這場戰役” ， 可能預示著北京將對推動其科技產業的方式進行全面改革，通過更多國家主導的支出和干預來應對美國的壓力。
美國 10 月份公佈的製裁措施已導致主要海外芯片製造設備公司停止向中國主要芯片製造商供貨，包括長江存儲科技有限公司
(YMTC) 和中芯國際，以及停止先進人工智能芯片製造商向公司和實驗室供貨。
中國商務部周一表示，世界第二大經濟體已就美國的芯片出口管制措施向世界貿易組織提出貿易爭議。
中國在芯片製造設備領域長期落後於世界其他地區，該領域仍由美國、日本和荷蘭的公司主導。
過去 20 年湧現出許多國內企業，但大多數在生產先進芯片的能力方面仍落後於競爭對手。
比如北方華創的刻蝕和熱工藝設備，只能生產28納米及以上的芯片，技術相對成熟。
上海微電子設備集團有限公司（SMEE）是中國唯一的光刻公司，可以生產
90 納米的芯片，遠遠落後於荷蘭的
ASML，後者生產的芯片低至 3 納米。
So, China is
working on a support package for its semiconductor industry in a major step
towards self sufficiency in chips and to counter U.S. moves in tightening
exports to China. I think for all countries, resources are scarce and
governments have to judge where to use their revenue for the best interest of the
people. My perception is that China loves to use its resources in giving out
financial aids to buy friends in the third world, and spending money to conduct
space exploration rather than improving the medical system in the country.
Perhaps it is the time to make a change.
Note:
In the microelectronics industry, a semiconductor
fabrication plant (commonly called a fab; sometimes foundry) is a
factory where devices such as integrated circuits are manufactured. Fabs
require many expensive devices to function. Estimates put the cost of building
a new fab over one billion U.S. dollars and with values as high as $3–4 billion
not being uncommon. TSMC invests $9.3 billion in its Fab15 300-mm wafer
manufacturing facility in Taiwan. It is estimated that their future fab might
cost $20 billion. (Wikipedia)
