Lack of core is not an old topic, and now some companies have adopted such a way to solve the problem. Recently, Winningk, CEO of asmale (ASML), a leading global lithography machine company in the Netherlands, told investors on the first quarter of 2022 earnings call that some companies have purchased a large number of washing machines - just to dig out the chips inside to solve the urgent need.
Winningk, CEO of asmail (ASML), a leading global lithography machine company in the Netherlands.
The source supply is insufficient, and the global chip shortage problem is difficult to solve
Recently, Winningk, CEO of asmail (ASML), a leading global lithography machine company in the Netherlands, told investors this somewhat absurd story at the first quarter of 2022 earnings call. "Executives at a large industrial conglomerate told me they were buying washing machines in large quantities, 'pulling out' the semiconductors inside and putting them into their own chip modules," he said. Winningk added, "It happens everywhere." ”
As a monopoly enterprise with a global market share of more than 80%, the vast majority of semiconductor manufacturers in the world have purchased lithography machines from them, such as Intel, Samsung, Hynix, TSMC, SMIC, etc.
And these chip factories want to expand chip production capacity, can only hope to buy more lithography machines, but ASML's own lithography machine production capacity is obviously limited. Winningke previously said that ASML cannot fully meet the needs of many semiconductor manufacturers who want to buy new equipment to expand production capacity, of which the demand for DUV lithography machines can only be completed by 60% in 2022.
From Winningke's recent speech, it is not difficult to see that the global demand for chips is still very strong, and the supply is still difficult to significantly improve. For high-tech manufacturers who need chip supply downstream, the global chip shortage will continue.
Don't underestimate the washing machine, maybe it can make a car "out of production"
Although Winningk did not specify which one the "very flexible" industrial factory is, from the perspective of the entire manufacturing field, the automobile industry is obviously the industry most affected by the global lack of cores, including Volkswagen and other leading car companies at home and abroad from time to time due to the lack of cores to reduce production and stop production.
According to foreign media reports, Honda Motor Company recently said that due to chip shortages and the epidemic lockdown, the company plans to cut the output of two production lines at its Suzuki plant in Japan by about 50% in early May. Tesla also said a few days ago that the company's production is still affected by chip shortages and rising prices of key components.
Domestic car companies are also greatly affected by chip shortages and epidemic lockdowns, in April, Li Bin, He Xiaopeng, Yu Chengdong have issued early warnings on social platforms, of which He Xiaopeng said that if the auto supply chain enterprises affected by the epidemic can not find a way to dynamically resume work and production, all Chinese automakers may face suspension in May. Weilai Automobile announced the suspension of vehicle production in early April, and CEO Li Bin bluntly said that "a car is not a part that can be produced." ”
Li Bin's speech actually has another meaning, that is, the current shortage of parts supply faced by car manufacturers is not all the shortage of high-tech chips.
In fact, some car companies revealed to the Nanduwan Finance Agency reporter that there are many places in a car that need to use many kinds of chips, some of which are indeed the same as the chips used in home appliances, such as some microcontrollers, power chips, motor drives, environmental sensors, etc., which are not high in terms of technical content.
That is to say, if a car company has a continuous supply of other parts or has a certain inventory, but the supply of a certain type of chip is facing suspension, then it may be possible to make up for the gap through the chip of the washing machine to help the smooth production of the whole vehicle.
However, this situation is too coincidental.
As a result, many analysts have questioned the exaggeration of Winningk's story. They believe that the industrial factory only bought a batch of washing machines to take out chips for experiments in the R&D department at most, and it is impossible to really put them into the production line on a large scale, which may not be cost-effective.
Guangdong has a number of home appliances and mobile phone electronics enterprises to transform into automotive electronics
Although the "large purchase of washing machine chips" may not be universal, and the sales volume of home appliance companies may not be significantly improved, it does reveal a direction for consumer electronics companies to transform into the automotive industry under strong demand.
The nanduwan finance agency reporter found that in Guangdong, which is rich in resources of home appliances and mobile phone electronics enterprises, many enterprises have expanded their business to the field of automotive electronics in recent years, and some of them have really entered the automotive supply chain and achieved considerable market results.
In the A-share automotive electronics concept stocks of Tonghuashun, 8 of the top 10 enterprises in Guangdong by market capitalization are mainly engaged in consumer electronics such as mobile phones or home appliances, and all of them have cross-border automotive electronics business in recent years. For example, Fenghua Hi-Tech, which ranks 9th, takes passive electronic components such as chip resistors in the home appliance market as its main business, and in January this year, it said in an institutional survey that at present, Fenghua Hi-Tech still takes the home appliance market as one of the company's important market application areas.
On the basis of continuously stabilizing and expanding the market for home appliance applications, automotive products are one of the key application areas of Fenghua Hi-Tech. Fenghua Hi-Tech said that at present, the company has developed and owned vehicle-grade MLCC, chip resistors, inductors, aluminum electrolytic capacitors and other products, of which MLCC and resistance vehicle specification products have been supplied to domestic and foreign automotive electronics customers in batches.
Guangdong Audiway Sensing Technology Co., Ltd., which passed the meeting on the Beijing Stock Exchange on April 1 this year, is also a company that started from home appliance sensors and has transformed automotive sensors in recent years and achieved rapid development.
Audiway deputy general manager Liang Meiyi once told the Nanduwan Finance Agency reporter that Audiwei has been immersed in the research and development of sensor technology in the early years, the earliest application market is mainly in the field of home appliances, and now its products are also used in air purifiers, refrigerators, air conditioners, humidifiers and so on.
Later, automotive electronic sensors gradually became the most important business of Audiway, and its ultrasonic sensors and other products have been installed on many domestic and foreign car companies. "Many of these ultrasonic sensors are independently developed and produced by Audiway, including each sensor chip that we have developed and designed independently." Liang Meiyi said that this is also inseparable from the technical accumulation of Audiway in the research and development of home appliance sensors for many years.
"From the perspective of vehicle production and sales and the supporting ratio of the parts industry, Guangdong auto parts still have a lot of room for improvement." A Guangdong car company researcher told the Nanduwan Finance Agency reporter that with the rapid advancement of automotive intelligence, the demand trend for automotive electronic products is obvious, which will bring a lot of room for development to automotive electronics innovation enterprises and enterprises that transform and expand automotive electronics business.
Producer: Nandu Kechuang Studio
Written by: Xu Jincong, reporter of Nanduwan Finance Agency
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