Survey: China's Fabless IC Firms Optimistic on Sales Growth

By Echo Zhao, EE Times China ,
April 29, 2019

One-third of Chinese fabless chip companies who responded to a recent survey by EE Times China believe that their companies will increase sales by more than 20% this year, exceeding the growth rate of 18% for the Chinese chip industry as a whole, as forecasted by the China Semiconductor Association.

The 18th annual China Fabless Survey — conducted from late December through late February — also found that respondents generally expect to be more profitable this year than China’s 10 largest chip companies. In all, 71.4% of respondents to the management portion of the China Fabless Survey estimated that their gross profit margin for 2018 was less than 30%, with the majority of respondents estimating that their profit margin would be 20% to 30%.
The gross profit margin of China’s top 10 semiconductor companies is about 20%, according to public data.

For the first time, the China Fabless Survey was divided into two portions, with one questionnaire for company management and a second questionnaire for engineers. The results of the management portion of the China Fabless Survey were compiled from 141 email and online responses, of which 91 were considered valid. (A separate article summarizing the responses to the engineer portion of the survey will also be published on EE Times).

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