China revs up on auto chips and HBM shakes up reminiscence

Hello everybody! That is Cheng Ting-Fang, your #techAsia host for this week.

Regardless of being based mostly in Taipei, I can really feel the US presidential race heating up hundreds of miles away.

China is without doubt one of the high themes of the Biden marketing campaign, and on Tuesday his administration slapped considerably larger tariffs on a number of Chinese language imports. Two gadgets caught my eye: import duties on Chinese language semiconductors are set to double to 50 per cent from 2025, and tariffs on Chinese language EVs will hit 100 per cent this 12 months

Washington cited issues that dumping of low cost Chinese language items may hurt the US job market and industries. However a more in-depth look reveals that the seemingly drastic tariff hikes could also be little greater than paper tigers.

I dug into China customs information and located the nation exported solely $2.3bn value of built-in circuits to the US in 2023, lower than 5 per cent of its greater than $500bn exports to the world’s greatest financial system. And China shipped solely $331mn value of EVs to the US final 12 months, lower than 1 per cent of the export whole.

The vast majority of key digital gadgets, like smartphones and computer systems, are usually not assembled within the US. This implies restricted direct demand for chip imports for American-made finish merchandise from China. Equally, with electrical autos, Chinese language manufacturers have a minimal presence within the US. In brief, the tariff hikes appear largely symbolic and unlikely to trigger a lot disruption to US-China commerce.

Nonetheless, a transparent development is rising: Each nations are placing precedence on defending their home markets.

Provide chain executives more and more use the time period “China for China”, indicating a shift in direction of self-sufficiency and preferring native consumption. This development, together with comparable actions by different governments, reinforces the sensation that the world is transferring in direction of a extra bipolar financial panorama.

Chipping in

China has lastly discovered a key sector the place it has an opportunity of enhancing its semiconductor presence: cars.

The federal government has requested high carmakers, together with SAIC Motor and BYD, to aggressively ramp up their use of domestically made chips to as a lot as 25 per cent of the whole by subsequent 12 months, with the eventual objective of getting all chips sourced domestically, Nikkei’s Cheng Ting-Fang, Lauly Li, and Shunsuke Tabeta write.

Making automobile chips usually doesn’t require probably the most cutting-edge chip manufacturing, so China’s efforts on this entrance won’t be technically impaired by US export controls which have hampered the nation’s entry to superior tools.

“I’m not your mum”

Baidu public relations chief Qu Jing has develop into an emblem of the brutal office tradition at Chinese language tech firms after releasing a sequence of rants demeaning employees final week, writes Ryan McMorrow for the Monetary Instances.

In one of many movies, which went viral on Chinese language social media, Qu stated she didn’t care about how lengthy hours and intensive enterprise journey would have an effect on her workers’ private lives. “I’m not your mum,” she stated. “I only care about results.”

She added that she had the ability to make anybody “jobless” in China’s PR business and that she was so dedicated to Baidu that she didn’t know her son’s grade in class.

Qu posted the quick movies to show her crew how one can use social media to advertise Baidu. As an alternative they struck a chord with staff bored with toiling underneath over-demanding bosses, touchdown the Chinese language search big underneath intense home scrutiny.

By the tip of the week, Qu was out of a job.

A memorable shift

Synthetic intelligence is driving a large transformation within the beforehand “commodity-like” business of dynamic random entry reminiscence (Dram), Kim Jaewon, Cheng Ting-Fang and Yifan Yu write.

Dram has lengthy been weak to market fluctuations and inclined to main worth swings. However high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM), a key know-how within the AI race, helps add worth to conventional Drams. HBM makes use of a stacking method to attach a number of layers of Dram, like a stack of pancakes, to allow sooner information switch and computing. This method will increase bandwidth and with the AI increase nonetheless operating scorching, HBM is anticipated to seize over 30 per cent of the whole Dram market worth by subsequent 12 months.

All aboard

The US isn’t the one one placing up commerce obstacles to Chinese language EVs. Washington’s steep tariffs have grabbed headlines, however Brazil can be set to launch a number of tariff hikes on EVs beginning this summer season.

In anticipation of the potential tariff hikes and different commerce restrictions, Chinese language EV makers together with BYD have been rushing to ship extra automobiles to Mexico and Brazil since March, write Yifan Yu, Lauly Li and Ryohtaroh Satoh of Nikkei Asia.

This, in flip, has pushed up demand for container transport, resulting in a surge in costs on routes from China to South America — a 55.8 per cent enhance between late January and late April. Costs have continued to rise in Could.

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