China Dumps Dud Chips On Russia, Moscow Media Moans

According to the Russian national business daily оммерсaнт, the failure rate of semiconductors delivered from China to Russia has surged by 1,900% in recent months (Kommersant).

According to Kommersant, who cited an unnamed source, the failure rate in imported silicon was 2% before to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. According to reports, Russian industries have had 40% failure rates since the start of the war.

Even a two percent error rate is below ideal since products with numerous components might have serious quality issues. Supply failure rates of 40% indicate that they are dangerously near to being ineffective.

Russian electronics producers, according to Kommersant, are not having a good time at all since, in addition to having a high failure rate, grey market equipment doesn’t move as quickly as legal equipment and supply chains are currently extremely congested within Russia.

According to the publication, economic sanctions are to blame for the exodus of several significant corporations from Russia. The only parties still prepared to work with Russian companies are grey market distributors and other opportunistic businesspeople.

People in the grey market are not known for their excellent customer service or dedication to quality. They get away with it because customers who complain about products with er, unusual origins tend to implicate themselves.

They might even be dumping subpar goods on Russian consumers, knowing that they have limited access to alternatives.

If true, it would be an interesting manifestation of the “friendship without bounds” that Moscow and Beijing vowed to maintain in February 2022. It’s especially odd given China’s frequently reiterating desire to eradicate corruption, modernise its economy, and concentrate primarily on high-quality product development.

While the Middle Kingdom likewise doesn’t totally mind Russia’s international isolation, China has employed diplomatic language that makes it clear that it does not entirely support Russia’s illegitimate invasion of Ukraine. It indicates that Chinese companies’ export prospects are improving at a time when the majority of liberal democracies throughout the world are refusing to do business with Huawei, ZTE, and other high-tech Chinese firms.

Moscow, on the other hand, has to produce more equipment to maintain its illegitimate invasion. A crucial component of that endeavour is semiconductors, so if failure rates are high, whoever is supplying Russia with subpar goods is impeding the non-war effort.