Source: CCTV Finance
In recent years, the shortage of automotive chips has been a haze, which not only seriously restricts the production capacity of the automobile industry, making the delivery of cars delayed, but also leading to car companies having to reduce the allocation of new cars, and some new cars can even be sold for a year before they can reload chips.
The car "lacks core" new chaos
CCTV Finance "Economic Information Simulcast" column video
Car companies "lack of core" less pieces of new cars have been reduced
There's a saying in the auto industry: "You can't build a car out of 99 percent of the parts." At the moment, however, this common sense is being challenged. Daimler, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle, and Tesla have all publicly stated that because of the "lack of core", it is not guaranteed to provide a complete configuration for new cars. BMW eliminated the touch function of the central information display of many models; GM will temporarily abandon the seat heating function.
Carabello, president of an american automotive research center: They said to remove the heated seat function, which is ridiculous for people like me who live in north Michigan, because we need to use the heated seat function for eight months a year.
Last week, due to chip shortages, global production was reduced by about 96,300 vehicles, of which more than 80% of the production cuts came from the European market and the North American market cut about 14,200 vehicles. So far, global production has been reduced by about 1.25 million vehicles in 2022.
Recently, Ford even announced that it would sell "semi-finished" vehicles that lacked some of its non-safety-critical function chips, and promised to reissue the chips to dealers a year later to help install them on customer cars.
Carla Bello, president of an american automotive research center: They said to remove the heated seat function, which is ridiculous for people like me who live in northern Michigan, because we need to use the heated seat function for eight months a year.
Domestic car companies "thirsty for cores" 20 yuan chip fried to 2800 yuan
In China, the CEOs of car companies have almost reached the point of "thirst for cores". A few days ago, Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu Automobile, said that every day it is scavenged for chips across the country and even globally. Chen Yudong, president of Bosch China, also posted a photo on social media, sitting in the office door with executives from great wall and Geely to show his determination to seek the core. Also anxious is Xiaopeng Motors.
The SEG Electronics Market in Shanghai's Huangpu District is the largest semiconductor trading market in Shanghai and has attracted much attention since the shortage of automotive chips. Many auto parts manufacturers choose to try their luck when they can't order enough chips.
The ST L9369 chip is the core chip for body electronic stabilization systems manufactured by STMicroelectronics. Because the chips used in automobiles are more stringent than ordinary chips in terms of applicable temperature and other indicators, they are called vehicle regulations and basically have no alternative products. In the previous year, due to the impact of the epidemic in Southeast Asia and other places, the output of chip factories has been greatly reduced, and the original price of this chip is only about 20 yuan, and the price has risen sharply.
Shanghai Huangpu District SEG electronic market merchants: if you want to spot a little difficult, the original tens of yuan, now fried to 2800 yuan, not including tax.
Chip shortages have plagued the automotive industry for some time. The situation is not getting better, or even worse. What are the reasons for the recent "lack of core" in cars?
The earthquake in Japan caused a number of chip factories to temporarily stop production
In mid-March, a series of earthquakes struck off the coast of Honshu, Japan, which not only hurt local buildings, but also the global chip market.
Renesas Electronics, the world's third-largest automotive chip maker, has suspended production at three plants in Japan as a result. This has made the already difficult automotive industry worse.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict affects the supply of raw materials for chips
The recent tense situation in Russia and Ukraine has also exacerbated the uncertainty of chip production. The data shows that Ukraine's supply of neon gas accounts for nearly 70% of the world's neon gas, and neon gas is an important raw material needed for chip production.
Among them, the rare gas on the periodic table, which was originally an inert gas, has become the most sensitive "active gas" in the price response under the geopolitical conflict: not only the neon gas on which semiconductor technology depends, there has been a "Bitcoin" jump, which is dozens of times higher than the highest increase at the end of 2020, and even helium, which is widely used in industry, has also increased by about three times, and the related price increase effect has begun to emerge.
In the semiconductor industry supply chain, Ukraine is an important supplier of neon gas in the world, and neon gas is an important component of semiconductor photolithography gas, mainly used in THE DUV exposure link, although the amount of electronic gas in the small proportion, but the impact of the process and product range is wide. According to jibang consulting statistics, the process nodes covered by neon gas cover from 8-inch wafers 180nm to 12-inch wafers 1Xnm, and the products involve the product process range with extremely tight supply from 2020 onwards, as well as storage types such as NAND Flash.
Semiconductor companies collectively increased prices
According to foreign media reports, on March 29, European chipmaker STMicroelectronics announced that it will raise prices for all of its product lines in the second quarter of this year. Renesas Electronics, the global leader in automotive chips, raised the price of chips in January this year.
Smart cars become a development trend The demand for chips will increase significantly
There are many kinds of automotive chips, overall, there are 8 categories: high-performance computing chips (AI chips /GPUs), microcontrollers (MCUs), memory chips (DRAM/Flash), CMOS image sensing chips, display driver chips, analog chips (including wireless communication power amplifiers, audio amplifiers, sensors, etc.), power components, sensing chips (pressure, flow, inertia, humidity, infrared, etc.).
As the electrification of cars accelerates, the number of chips required by cars is increasing. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the number of car chips required for traditional fuel vehicles is 600-700pcs/vehicle; while the number of automotive chips required for electric vehicles will be increased to 1600pcs/vehicle, and the chip demand for the new generation of ideal cars has reached 1700pcs/vehicle, which is 3 times the original.
If it is a more advanced intelligent car, the demand for chips is expected to increase to 3000pcs/vehicle, that is, the higher the degree of intelligence of the car, the higher the demand for car chips. Correspondingly, the average value of automotive chips will also increase from 370 US dollars / vehicle for traditional fuel vehicles to 1000 US dollars / vehicle for electric vehicles, of which the semiconductor value of high-end electric vehicles has increased to 1500 US dollars / vehicle, and it is expected to increase to more than 2300 US dollars / vehicle in the future.
Increase production capacity, expand cooperation, and all parties should solve the "core disease"
In fact, it is not only car companies that lack the pain of "core", but also affected by the epidemic and supply chain, and various industries around the world are suffering from chip shortages. Many countries have to compete to expand the manufacturing capacity of chips.
Recently, Samsung announced that it plans to spend $150 billion to expand production capacity. Earlier this year, Intel announced plans to invest $100 billion to build the world's largest chip manufacturing base. TSMC also recently announced that it will invest $100 billion in expanding production capacity in the next three years.
Ajit Manocha, President of the International Semiconductor Industry Association: I've heard more investment announcements in the last two or three years than I've heard in my lifetime.
In February, the European Commission officially announced the European Chip Act, under which the EU will invest more than 45 billion euros to increase Europe's share of the global chip manufacturing market.
Car companies and chip suppliers join hands to expand R&D investment
The response of downstream car companies has also become more and more positive. Mark Reus, president of General Motors, revealed that he plans to develop automotive chips with seven chip companies. South Korea's Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics intend to reach a cooperation in the field of automotive chips. Ford Motor Company and GROMFONE have also signed a chip development cooperation agreement.
Domestic car companies are also actively laying out their own chip supply chains. Since last year, domestic auto companies such as BAIC, SAIC, Dongfeng, Geely, and BYD have begun to invest in the chip industry.
Up to now, there are more than 375,000 chip-related enterprises in mainland China, of which more than 102,000 newly registered enterprises will be registered in 2021, with a growth rate of 41.1%; in the past three years, there have been more than 850 financing incidents for chip-related enterprises in mainland China.
Domestic car companies actively layout the chip supply chain to increase investment
More efforts are needed in the future to strengthen the development of the Chinese mainland automotive chip industry, as semiconductors are essential for increasingly electric, connected and intelligent vehicles.
Dong Yang, co-chairman of the China Automotive Chip Industry Innovation Strategic Alliance, which is committed to promoting the development of the local automotive semiconductor industry, said: "At present, we rely heavily on the import of key automotive chips. While Chinese mainland accounts for more than 30 percent of global auto sales, local companies only produce about 5 percent of the world's automotive chips.
According to him, it is important to cultivate competitive local automotive chip companies that can help automakers better cope with chip supply challenges and exports that other countries may implement in the face of geopolitical uncertainty.
Roy Lu, an independent automotive analyst based in Shanghai, said local automakers have shown a keen interest in the latest chips for smart cars, but they are rarely involved in the production of microcontroller units, better known as MCUs, which help with automotive applications ranging from motor control to infotainment systems and body control.
He explained that MCUs are less profitable and that as vehicles become computers on wheels, the demand for them will become smaller and smaller.
"But automakers can't get enough chips by simply putting pressure on auto parts makers. At the very least, they should invest together to expand capacity. This investment is necessary at the moment," Lu said.
Some of China's biggest automakers have already begun to work in this direction. Geely Auto CEO Gan Jiayue said the company is optimizing its supply chain by strengthening cooperation with chipmakers.
"In fact, we've now established a conversation with more than 130 chipmakers, and we're buying some chips directly from them," Gan said.
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