China’s chip equipment imports rise 16% in August as AI demand fuels semiconductor buildout

China’s imports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment jumped 16% in August, according to Jefferies, marking another data point in what’s shaping up to be a meaningful second-half recovery for the world’s most watched chip supply chain. The August figure lands on top of a July that already showed signs of revival. Barclays reported that semiconductor equipment imports rose 9% year-over-year in July, a welcome reversal after a first half that was, to put it gently, underwhelming. Q1 imports dropped 16%, and Q2 managed only a 1% dip. So the trend line has bent sharply upward. The numbers behind the rebound August’s broader import picture paints an even more aggressive expansion story. Overall Chinese imports grew 28.2% year-over-year that month. Hi-tech product imports climbed 68.7%, and semiconductor imports specifically surged 83.6%. Drilling into the July equipment data from Barclays offers a useful breakdown of where the money is going. Wire bonders, the machines used in back-end semiconductor assembly, saw a 61% year-over-year increase. Lithography equipment rose 7%. Chemical vapor deposition tools climbed 15%. Logic-chip production equipment was a notable area of growth in Ju...