quantum chips Photo: CFP

The chip shortage is still having a significant impact on the auto industry in China, but the situation will ease in the fourth quarter compared with the third, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Tuesday.

In September, domestic output and sales of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) both exceeded 2.1 million units, keeping China in the first place globally in the sector. The chip shortage will ease in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter, Luo Junjie, a spokesperson of the MIIT, said on Tuesday during a press conference.

"Industrial growth slowed in the past quarter, and pressure on the Chinese economy increased, as the external environment remained volatile. There were also uncertainties like floods, the pandemic, rising prices of raw materials, tight energy supplies and chip shortages," Luo said.

But on the whole, the steady recovery of the industrial sector has not changed, and the resilience and endogenous driving force of economic recovery remain strong, Luo noted.

In the first three quarters of 2021, the added value of advanced manufacturing increased 20.1 percent year-on-year, while the output of industrial robots increased by 57.8 percent and that of integrated circuits rose 43.1 percent.

The NEV sector was among the emerging and high-tech industries that witnessed rapid growth.

In the first nine months of 2021, the total production of NEVs in China reached 18.243 million, up 7.5 percent year-on-year, while sales were up 8.7 percent to 18.623 million, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers earlier this month.