Recently, Japan** reported that China and the United States are fighting a chip war, and Japan's chip semiconductor equipment manufacturers "enjoy unexpected benefits".
Why does Japan say that? The reason is that in 2023, wafer factories in Chinese mainland will purchase a large number of semiconductor equipment and semiconductor materials from Japan, resulting in a significant increase in the performance of these manufacturers in Japan.
Data shows that in the three months to December 2023, Tokyo Electron, Japan's largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer, contributed an unprecedented 46 percent of its revenue from Chinese mainland9%, the highest value ever.
In fact, not only Tokyo Electron, but also Nikon, Japan's largest lithography machine manufacturer, has seen a sharp increase in performance, with orders from China soaring.
Even Nikon said that it had recently received "very strong requests" from Chinese customers that it would launch new lithography machines next, though Nikon said it would "expand its business while complying with the rules."
We know that in the field of semiconductor equipment, the United States ranks first with a share of about 50%, and Japan ranks second with a share of about 30%.
In the field of semiconductor materials, Japan ranks first, accounting for 60%, far ahead, of which 19 are the most critical semiconductor materials, Japan monopolizes 14 of them, these 14 materials, Japanese companies account for more than 50% of the share.
In recent years, China has been frantically expanding production and vigorously developing the semiconductor industry, which naturally requires a large number of semiconductor equipment and semiconductor materials, while the United States has suppressed China, and many of them are not exported.
In such a situation, on the one hand, China is preparing spare tires around the world and stocking up more goods in case the ban becomes more and more stringent and it is difficult to buy them in the future, and on the other hand, it is to make a breakthrough on its own and reduce its dependence on foreign countries, which is a two-pronged approach.
Therefore, it is natural to buy more goods from Japanese manufacturers, so orders for Japanese semiconductor equipment from China have also increased significantly, and the performance has naturally increased significantly.
However, in fact, Japanese manufacturers will not enjoy such a good day for long, and Tokyo Electron has a clear understanding, and its president Toshiki Kawai (Toshiki Kawai) said: "China is trying to improve its self-sufficiency. ”
This is actually telling you that maybe there will be more orders from China in 2023, but as China's self-sufficiency improves, there will be fewer and fewer orders, but not to mention that Japan also has a ban, and the advanced ones can't be ***, and we can slowly be self-sufficient when we mature.