Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
The author | James
Edit the | Xiao Han
Domestic chips may once again be sanctioned by the United States.
Chedong May 10 news, just last night, foreign media The Information released a report, saying that the US Department of Commerce is considering expanding the ban on the sale of chip manufacturing equipment to Chinese companies. The ban, which could be drafted in a matter of months, will target companies including Huahong Semiconductor, Changxin Storage and Changjiang Storage.
▲Foreign media The Information reported
It is worth noting that Huahong Semiconductor has business coverage in the fields of vehicle-grade IGBT and IGBT wafers. This means that the shortage of automotive semiconductors, which has not been solved so far, will become more serious with the introduction and implementation of the ban.
In fact, the ban that the U.S. Department of Commerce is considering is not only for Chinese companies, but also for overseas companies that have set up factories in Chinese mainland.
According to the report, chip companies such as South Korea's SK Hynix, Germany's Infineon, The Netherlands' NXP Semiconductors and The United States' Texas Instruments have factories in China. Although they are all foreign-owned factories, they will also face the same export control rules as Chinese factories.
And these overseas companies are also important suppliers of automotive chips, and it can even be said that these manufacturers determine the lifeblood of the automotive industry.
Specific to the restriction rules, the new ban will restrict the supply of U.S. raw material suppliers to Chinese companies, and companies such as Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA Corp. are expected to be significantly affected. Last year, the three companies generated sales of $14.5 billion (about 97.1 billion yuan) in China, accounting for one-third of total revenue.
According to people familiar with the matter, the US Department of Commerce has quietly asked US companies to determine which chip devices need to be regulated.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Commerce wants to develop a set of rules similar to those applicable to SMIC to restrict other semiconductor companies. That is, to allow these companies to continue to produce large-scale, old-fashioned chips, because if all manufacturing is banned, it will cause more harm to American companies.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Commerce may also persuade chipmakers in Japan, the Netherlands and other countries to adopt similar rules to "ensure that Chinese chipmakers cannot avoid sanctions by buying tools from other countries."
The U.S. legislature is also discussing a $52 billion (348.3 billion yuan) plan that would include attracting chip companies to build factories in the United States.
A Commerce Department spokesman said it was unable to comment on whether the ban was already planned at this time and said the Commerce Department would constantly evaluate controls on semiconductor technology.
First, the chip shortage remains unresolved The ban will hurt the lifeblood of the automotive industry
If the U.S. Department of Commerce ban is implemented, it will cause a huge blow to the global chip industry, and the impact on the automotive industry will be particularly obvious.
For domestic chip companies, independent manufacturing of chips is not a dream, but it is becoming more and more difficult to create advanced process chips.
For example, SMIC, which has been affected by the US ban, cannot expand the production scale of its 14nm process chip. Last fall, SMIC spent $8 billion (about 53.6 billion yuan) to introduce a new 28nm production line to expand production capacity.
If chip manufacturing equipment and raw materials cannot be introduced, domestic chip companies may follow in the footsteps of SMIC.
This will be a major blow to the entire domestic chip industry.
In June last year, Huahong Semiconductor's automotive grade IGBTs and 12-inch IGBT wafers began mass production. At the same time, Huahong Semiconductor's 8-inch IGBT wafer has also been mass-produced. Its products have been applied in the fields of automotive motor controller, vehicle charger OBC, electronic control of air conditioning electric compressor and warm air heating PTC.
▲Huahong semiconductor manufacturing process
For overseas companies, SK Hynix, Infineon, NXP, and Texas Instruments are the leading enterprises in automotive semiconductors. If the U.S. ban affects these overseas companies, it will have a more lethal impact on the auto industry.
It can be said that whether it is the intelligent function of the cockpit or the auxiliary driving function of radar and camera, it is inseparable from the supply of these chip companies.
The automotive industry, which has not yet solved the problem of missing cores, may usher in a larger-scale chip winter. At that time, the chip shortage may not only affect Chinese car companies, but also global car companies, including American car companies, may be significantly hit.