Experts: Substitution of semiconductors imports to take 15 years

MOSCOW, May 11 (PRIME) -- Russia will need 15 years to tackle a deficit of semiconductors needed to manufacture equipment by organizing national production or supplies from China, experts told PRIME on Wednesday.

“Russia has no the necessary technological process to produce such microchips … it requires the equipment that Taiwan or Asian countries, like Malaysia, for example, have ... it will take Russia at least 15 years to do it (to implement a system to produce semiconductors) if there is such a goal at all,” research agency Content Review head Sergei Polovnikov said.

The country does not have a suitable facility. The Moscow Region-based plant Mikron, whose micro controllers are embedded into bank cards Mir and travel cards Troika, doesn’t have a technological process to make sophisticated microchips, the expert said.

MForum Analytics analyst Alexei Boiko said that China’s SMIC may be an alternative to Taiwan’s TSMC, which earlier stopped supplies to Russia. There are a number of specific features that should be taken into account: it will take at least a year to re-launch production, the design of a chip may undergo changes, and there can be difficulties over SMIC’s work with the U.S.

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