2022 Global Semiconductor Insights: China is the World’s Largest Chip Market

In 2021, 115 trillion chips were sold worldwide, with the fastest growth in automotive-grade chips. Sales of chips in the segment rose 34% year over year to $26.4 billion.
Semiconductor industry sales reached $555.9 billion in 2021. It was the highest annual sales to date, up 26.2% from $440.4 billion in 2020.
According to the analysis report, world chip sales reached $50.9 billion in December 2021, up 28.3 percent from December 2020 and 1.5 percent from November 2021.

By region, the market in the Americas saw the largest growth of 27.4% in 2021. China remains the largest chip market.
In 2021, semiconductor sales in China reached $192.5 billion. That’s up 27.1% from 2020. Annual sales rose 27.3 percent in Europe, 25.9 percent in Asia-Pacific, and 19.8 percent in Japan.

Compared with December 2020, semiconductor sales rose 5.2 percent in the Americas in December 2021, 0.8 percent in China, 0.3 percent in Europe, 0.1 percent in Asia-Pacific, and 0.3 percent in Japan.

Sales in the fourth quarter of 2021 reached $152.6 billion, up 28.3% from the fourth quarter of 2020 and up 4.9% from the third quarter of 2021.

The monthly sales figures are collated by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics Organization and represent trends for each of the three months.

SIA President John Neuffer said in a statement:”Amid a persistent global chip shortage, semiconductor companies have ramped up production to unprecedented levels to cope with continued high demand, resulting in record chip sales and shipments.”

Neuffer said: “Demand for chips will only grow more rapidly in 2022. Chips are becoming more and more important, and more and more core technologies use them. In order to keep chip production and innovation at home, in the long run, the United States must push forward the research, design, and production chip Act as soon as possible.”

He also called on Congress to quickly fund investments in the $52 billion Chip Act for chip research, design, and manufacturing to strengthen the U.S. economy, security, critical infrastructure, and supply chain.