Well-known Chinese news site Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) recently reported that the U.S. research firm Gartner just revealed data showing that, in 2021, Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor revenue increased by 31.6 percent to US$75.9 billion, surpassing Intel to become the world’s highest-revenue chipmaker. The second-ranked Intel’s semiconductor revenue was $73.1 billion last year, with an increase of only 0.5 percent. It was the slowest sales growth among the top 25 chip manufacturers. Intel’s competitor AMD, in the server processor segment, market share has soared from 14th to 10th. However, Gartner’s ranking does not include foundry companies such as TSMC. It is worth mentioning that, in order to consolidate its position as the world’s number one, Samsung intends to return to China to seize more market share. Recently, it has established a new team called the “China Market Innovation Group,” which directly reports to the co-CEO. In 2018, 60 percent of Samsung’s chip revenue came from the Chinese market. Each year in China, it has easily earned RMB 300 billion (around US$47.3 billion) a year. It is fair to say that Samsung becoming the chip king in that year definitely had help from the Chinese market. In 2021, the global semiconductor industry sales surged 25.1 percent to $583.5 billion. This is the first time the industry exceeded the $500 billion revenue mark. As chip demand continues to surge, chipmakers such as Intel and Micron have expressed the belief that the global semiconductor boom will continue into 2025.

Source: Sohu, January 20, 2022
https://www.sohu.com/a/517898283_334198

Global Times recently reported that Japanese media have been covering how Chinese electric vehicles are gaining momentum in Japan, entering the Japanese public transportation and logistics industry with a “crushing price advantage.” They claim that the momentum has the potential to lead to China’s deeply mining Japan’s information. The Japanese people should not be careless. The media urged the Japanese government to respond. At the end of last year, there was a “shocking” news report that four electric buses made by China’s BYD began to operate on the Keihan bus line in Kyoto city. Japan-made electric buses cost JPY 70 million each, while China-made buses cost JPY 19.5 million. BYD plans to sell 4,000 electric buses to Japan by 2030. Japanese media also indicated that electric vehicles made in China are also making their way into the Japanese logistics industry. For example, leading logistics company “Sagawa Express” plans to introduce 7,200 Chinese electric vehicles. And SBS Holdings, the parent company of “same-day delivery,” also plans to replace 2,000 current vehicles with Chinese electric trucks. Even with Japanese government subsidies, Nissan and Mitsubishi’s EVs are priced much higher. Japanese media speculated that the strong momentum of China’s electric vehicles is due to the large subsidies from the Chinese government. They also urge the Japanese government to follow China’s example and introduce laws to prohibit the transfer of EV driving data abroad.

Source: Global Times, January 21, 2022
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/46UdoIgp1Zp