Russia and China have close ties when it comes to business and geopolitical relations. When other nations sanctioned the former following the Ukraine tension, several industries in the country felt the impact of the severe inflation and economic crisis.
However, Russia found that despite its partnership with China, some imported products from the Asian country were already unusable, like in the case of defective microchips.
Moscow learned that 40% of the China-made semiconductors had had a high failure rate over the past months.
1,900% Dud Rate For Chinese Microchips
(Photo : Brian Kostiuk from Unsplash)
A Pro-Putin newspaper reports that there are 40% of microchips imported from China are kaput.
As The Register reports in its latest article, Russia noticed that there's a strange trend in the shipped chips from China.
The government discovered that in recent months, an increase of 1,900% in the failure rate of semiconductors was evident, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant (Коммерсантъ).
The publication, which Alisher Usmanov, a Putin supporter, owns, noted that an unnamed source claims that the worsening supply chain in the country was attributed to both the COVID-19 pandemic and economic sanctions.
Because of this, Russia's import option will only fall on its allies. In short, it would only depend on China for the shipment of semiconductors in the country given that the US and other countries punished it amid its conflict with Ukraine.
Related Article: Chinese Officials Warn About The New US Chip Restrictions That May Hurt the Global Supply Chains
Minimal Failure Rate is Already Bad
Since Russia depends on its advanced military equipment and electronics, it's a big deal to consider that the failure rate for the chips is pretty messed up.
Tom's Hardware says that even a 2% dud rate for semiconductors is considered bad. The worst part here is that it's not only below 3%. In fact, a 40% failure rate is disastrous for a country that is reliant on quality chips for its modern devices.
Having said that, Russia just clearly wasted its time and resources to incorporate the chips into its technologies without gaining anything in return other than diplomacy.
Kommersant also wrote in its report that many Russian companies do not know enough about verifying and checking the supplier and the products before shipping.
Russian consumers have nothing to spare with these defective chips, given that they do not have a good alternative other than Chinese semiconductors.
Odd Relation Between China and Russia
It's strange to imagine how Russia can withstand this kind of negotiation with China, given that this treatment negatively impacts its economy.
Somehow, this could be an "odd" friendship that we could have ever imagined between the two military giants.
Suppose the 40% failure rate for the microchips is something that does not need immediate resolution. In that case, it's an alarming problem to address in the long run for Russia, given the scarcity of semiconductors at present.
Last week, Lam Research and ASML Holdings kicked out American engineers from their respective positions in the companies amid the US trade restrictions. The US-China tech war is just getting started.
Read Also: US Bans NVIDIA From Exporting AI Chips to China and Russia
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Written by Joseph Henry
