Automotive chip: In the market atmosphere where demand is mostly slowing down, IC design manufacturers pointed out that automotive chips are still very popular, so so far they have not reduced the amount of wafer production to wafer foundries. “If the process is suitable for the production of automotive products, and we will continue to strive for capacity support from wafer foundries.”

More and more car companies have to stop production or short-term production due to lack of chips, and delayed delivery has become the norm. On June 25, at the 2022 China Nansha International Integrated Circuit Industry Forum, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, said that in the first half of 2022, due to the shortage of chips and the impact of the epidemic, GAC will reduce the production of 160,000 vehicles and lose about 20 billion yuan in output value. He revealed that GAC faced a shortage of 33,000 chips in the second quarter. According to the latest report from AutoForecast Solutions (AFS), an auto industry data forecasting company, as of July 3, the global auto market has lost about 2.5 million vehicles this year due to chip shortages. Global automakers cut production by 167,000 vehicles last week due to a shortage of chips, the AFS said.

Among them, the production of about 68,000 vehicles was cut in Europe and about 36,000 in North America. Global automakers are forecast to cut production by 3.31 million vehicles by the end of this year due to a lack of chips.Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius also said last week that the global semiconductor shortage is expected to cover the entire 2022 and continue into 2023. He said the semiconductor situation is very serious and will be a challenge for the entire industry this year and next. 

Netcom chip: At present, global Netcom chips are still out of stock, and the quotations of chips from leading American manufacturers have skyrocketed. Even if customers accept the price increase, they will not be able to obtain chips as scheduled. Although there has been a lot of noise in the market for smartphones and consumer electronics recently, and the chip shortage has eased slightly, the world is actively investing in broadband construction and upgrading, and the demand for telecom equipment is still quite strong, and the delivery of chips for telecom is still far away.

In addition, industry insiders revealed that although TSMC and other production capacity are in short supply, they will still give estimates to chip factories, but the international first-line Netcom chip manufacturers will only deploy the chip production plan that is most beneficial to their own until the last minute.  According to the analysis of China Netcom factory, for telecom customers, price increases can be tolerated, and long delivery times can be tolerated, but there is no delivery time estimate. “The statement makes people “unbearable”! Due to the continuous shortage of Netcom chips, the current order fulfillment rate is only 70%. Many second- and third-tier telecom customers in Europe and the United States have delayed the delivery of chips for a year, greatly delaying the opportunity to expand the market.

Industrial chip: Perhaps because there are no star companies like Tesla, or because it is too far from the public, the “core disease” in the field of industrial control does not seem to have attracted attention. But in fact, the core shortage of industrial control products has been reflected in multiple levels, including the shortage of PLC, DCS, inverter and other products. Among them, the delivery time of the inverter has been extended from 4-6 weeks to 16-24 weeks. Since the second half of 2021, Siemens, Schneider, ABB, Honeywell, Omron, Delta, Emerson, Mitsubishi and other global industrial control brands have announced price increase notices. Among them, Schneider said that due to the lack of supply of Ethernet chips, the sales of related products will be suspended worldwide and orders will not be accepted. It can be seen that the lack of cores has affected the leading enterprises in the field of industrial control. If this problem is not solved, the impact of core shortage on the industry will be more serious.

According to industry insiders, since July 1 this year, industrial control manufacturers such as SICK, Festo, Pilz, MEAN WELL, and Yokogawa will set off a new round of price hikes, with the highest price increase exceeding 20%! The reasons for the price increase, without exception, are due to the shortage of core industrial control chips and the continuous price increase, as well as the continuous increase in the prices of commodities, labor and transportation. Among them, the price increase and shortage of chips are particularly emphasized.

From the perspective of the industrial control MCU market, the delivery period under normal circumstances is basically around 14-20 weeks. According to statistics, the supply period has gradually lengthened since 2020Q2, which is still controllable compared to automotive products. However, starting from 2021Q4, the lead time of TI, Renesas, NXP, ST and Infineon among the leading manufacturers has been further extended. By 2022Q1, the longest lead time of some industrial products exceeds 52 weeks, resulting in a sharp rise in spot market prices.

In terms of industrial control analog devices, it is also one of the “protagonists” of the recent shortage. In general, the delivery time is basically concentrated in 12-20 weeks. Among them, Diodes, Infineon, Microchip, ST and ON Semiconductor have experienced particularly serious increases. Some products have a lead time of up to 52 weeks.