Following the partial ban imposed by the Chinese Cyberspace Administration on Micron, several Chinese securities firms estimated that domestic manufacturers had the opportunity to fill the market gap left by the ban. Micron's sales 2022 revenue in the Chinese market was approximately US$3.3 billion.
In an interview with the Chinese business daily 21st Century Business Herald, senior officials from Beijing-based Ingenic Semiconductor indicated that over the next 3 to 5 years, there should be many opportunities for Chinese competitors. Liu Qiang, Chairman of Ingenic Semiconductor, stated that the Micron incident has attracted considerable attention within the Chinese industry. In the short term, it does not have a significant impact on the company. However, in the long term, it indeed presents a good opportunity for Ingenic Semiconductor and other related domestic enterprises to substitute imports. Though the report points out that Micron may lose half or one-third of its market share in China, it is believed that Micron won't simply hand over the entire market.
In fact, Ingenic already holds approximately 15% market share in the global automotive memory market, making them second only to Micron. Notably, major memory makers like Micron primarily focus on high-speed and high-capacity products like DDR4 and DDR5. To differentiate and avoid direct competition, Ingenic's main source of income currently comes from DDR3 products. However, tthe company does have some products that compete directly with Micron, such as DDR4 and LPDDR4.
In 2019, Ingenic Semiconductor spent CNY7.2 billion on mergers and acquisitions, acquiring Beijing-based Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (ISSI), a vehicle memory manufacturer. This made Ingenic the only Chinese company capable of developing industrial-grade RAM chips and achieved high returns. The market for automotive memory products was previously dominated by top players such as Micron, and there were relatively few Chinese peers meeting the rigid standards required for automotive chips.
. Considering that the development cycle and certification process for automotive-grade products can take 3 to 5 years, Liu Qiang expects that if Chinese manufacturers can catch up with international giants, it is very likely that within 3 to 5 years or even longer, import substitution in this sector can be achieved.
