China's semiconductor industry posted an impressive growth last year, with its industrial structure continuing to improve.

According to a semiconductor summit held recently in Shanghai, last year China produced approximately 30 billion integrated circuit (IC) chips, a year-on-year increase of 36.7 percent. The sector recorded a sales volume of 75 billion yuan (US$9.2 billion), up 37.5 percent over the previous year.

Industry insiders predicted that the semiconductor industry would maintain the sound development momentum this year, hopefully producing 42 billion IC chips and achieving a sales volume of 102 billion yuan (US$12.6 billion).

Since the beginning of last year, the sector has adjusted and improved its industrial structure, with the IC packaging business claiming a smaller share and IC design and IC wafer production expanding rapidly.

In 2005, the IC packaging business garnered 34 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) in earnings, up 20.3 percent over the previous year. Meanwhile, the earnings of the IC design and IC wafer production reached 13.1 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) and 28 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion) respectively, up 60.8 percent and 54.5 percent year on year.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2006)