China last year imported $16.6 billion in integrated circuits, a 25% increase over 2000, while exporting $2.5 billion in ICs, a 10% drop from the year earlier, according to trade figures released by Xinhua News Agency, the state-owned news service.
China produced 6.4 billion units of ICs, a 9% increase over the previous year, but no dollar value was given. The unit volume of domestically-produced ICs compared with 26.18 billion units imported.
Reflecting China's huge contract manufacturing base, the country exported $13.1 billion in computers, up 19% from the previous year, and $6.8 billion in computer peripheral equipment, up 8%. Computer monitors alone comprised $3.5 billion, up 4%. Parts for computers had $7.9 billion in exports, up 43% over the prior year.
Despite the high export volume of computer equipment, China imported $4.9 billion in ADP systems, up 10%, and $1.1 billion in peripheral gear, up 17%.
Parts for ADP systems totaled $6.6 billion in imports, up 23% from the year earlier.
The hike in both computer equipment exports and imports was in sharp contrast to the rest of the world where the market fell for PCs and related peripherals for the first time in years. One product category that did take a hit in Chinese exports reflecting the global slump was keyboards/mouse that fell 4% to $3.5 billion in exports.
