Samsung's smartphone market share may be nonexistent in China but it's still a leading supplier of memory chips to the People's Republic. A new report reveals that Samsung actually exported more chips to China than it did to the United States in 2023, representing a 53.9% increase year-over-year.
This is attributed to China's ongoing economic stimulus policy that has encouraged the replacement of old devices with newer models. Memory chip suppliers like Samsung and SK Hynix have greatly benefitted from this policy.
Chip sanctions could spoil Samsung's party in China
A business report released by Samsung recently has revealed that its chip exports to China hit 64.93 trillion won or $44.6 billion in 2023, up 53.9% from $28.9 billion the previous year. This was higher than its exports to the United States in 2023 that were worth $42.1 billion.
Samsung mainly sells NAND flash, LPDDR, image sensors, and display driver ICs to China. Some, but not all, of its high-bandwidth memory modules are also sold to customers in the country. The higher demand for these products was generated by China's aggressive economic stimulus that pumped over $20 billion in the market to increase demand for smartphones and home appliances.
With China expected to continue its economic stimulus efforts, and the semiconductor industry gradually entering a recovery phase, analysts believe Samsung and SK Hynix may see further improvements in their performance in the Chinese market.
Samsung has maintained a dual-track strategy, selling legacy memory products in China while targeting US and other western nations for sales of its advanced HBM modules. However, Samsung can't sell some of its most lucrative memory products in China due to chip sanctions placed on the country by the US.
Many industry watchers are of the view that these sanctions could be expanded as the trade war heats up between the two super powers, with Samsung and other memory makers left with no option but to walk a tightrope between them.