China imported fewer computer chips last year than a year earlier, China Customs reports. Corona lockdowns and outbreaks in China partly caused the drop of more than 15 percent.
As a result, several factories could not run at full capacity. For example, in November, a large iPhone factory of the Taiwanese Foxconn was hit for a long time.
At the same time, the United States is trying to limit the export of chips and equipment for manufacturing them. That country wants to prevent the latest generations of chips from being used by the Chinese army.
It is the first time since 2004 that fewer chips went into China than in the previous year. Then data agency Bloomberg started tracking the data. Because a lot of production has been moved to China in recent decades, more and more chips were needed in the factories in that country.
As a result, in 2020, 22 percent more chips were imported by China, and in 2021 the number grew by 17 percent.