Vietnam among top 4 Asian markets leading US chip diversification

Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Vietnam has emerged as one of the top four Asian beneficiaries as the U.S. has significantly shifted its chip imports away from traditional markets since the beginning of the year, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The list of the four Asian winning markets includes Thailand, Vietnam, India, and Cambodia.

The U.S. chip imports rose 17 percent year on year in February to US$4.86 billion, of which imports from Asia accounted for 83 percent, according to Bloomberg.

Most notably, imports from India saw unprecedented growth, with the turnover increasing 34 times to reach $152 million.

Imports from Cambodia also climbed impressively by nearly seven times to achieve a figure slightly higher than the import turnover of $166 million from Japan, the traditional chip manufacturing market.

Vietnam and Thailand, which both have much growing slices of the chipmaking market, increased their U.S. trade in the sector by 75 percent and 62 percent, respectively.

Vietnam has made up over 10 percent of U.S. chip imports for seven straight months.

These signs indicate that the U.S. has been diversifying its electronics supply chain by shifting manufacturing from traditional markets to emerging ones.

This explains why while Malaysia, one of the world’s leading factories in chip packaging, continues to top the list of chip suppliers to the U.S. after its market share fell to 20 percent of total U.S. imports in February.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh tasked the Ministry of Planning and Investment with drafting a resolution and a program on chip production while presiding over the cabinet meeting in Ha Noi on Monday.

Vietnam has become a center of the semiconductor industry as Samsung announced a plan to produce semiconductors at its factory in northern Thai Nguyen province from July next year, pouring in an additional $920 million.

The country is also home to Intel’s largest assembly and testing factory with an investment of $1.5 billion.

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