On the evening of September 10, the official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation released a message about "administrative penalties imposed on three auto chip distributors for driving up prices in accordance with the law". The three companies are Shanghai Qiante Electronics Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Chengsheng Industrial Co., Ltd. , Shenzhen Yuchang Technology Co., Ltd. was fined 2.5 million yuan in total for driving up the price of automobile chips.
The General Administration of Market Supervision stated that since the beginning of this year, the price of chips sold by auto chip manufacturers and authorized agents has increased by 10% to 15%, and individual chips have increased by 50%.
A few distributors took the opportunity to maliciously snap up the shortage of chips, sharply increase their prices, drive up prices, and make high profits.
According to investigations, the three distributors of Shanghai Qiante, Shanghai Chengsheng and Shenzhen Yuchang significantly increased the price of some automotive chips. For example, chips with an purchase price of less than 10 yuan were sold at a high price of more than 400 yuan, an increase of 40 times.
Cinda Electronics analysts believe that the State Administration of Market Supervision announced an investigation into the auto chip distributors suspected of driving up prices, triggering fluctuations in the automotive semiconductor sector.
But this survey is actually good for the industry.
Some traders are hoarding and maliciously squeezing small-scale downstream manufacturers, causing widespread dissatisfaction in the industry.
This investigation can clear the source and help the long-term development of the industry.
Xia Guigen, a senior strategic consultant in the integrated circuit industry, also believes that the fines play the role of "killing chickens and monkeys", but it is the changes in supply and demand that can have an impact after all.
Impact on the chip market
Among the three auto suppliers that have been punished, Shenzhen Yuchang Technology Co., Ltd. has attracted attention from the outside world because of its shareholding structure.
According to the company's check, Yuchang Technology was established in 2018 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan.
In terms of equity, Shenzhen Yuchang is 100% controlled by Hubei Dongjun Automotive Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.
Hubei Dongjun Automotive Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. is a company that mainly provides automotive electronics products, vehicle terminal mobile life technology, automotive service value-added services and big data applications for OEMs. Hubei Yikatong Technology Co., Ltd. holds 51% of the shares, and Hubei Dongjun Industrial Group Co., Ltd. holds 49% of the shares.
On September 7, Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. announced that it has signed a strategic investment agreement with Hubei Yikatong Technology to invest approximately US$50 million in Hubei Yikatong Technology, which is equivalent to about 1.51% of the total shares of Hubei Yikatong Technology.
According to the company's penetrating equity, Li Shufu is the suspected actual controller of Shenzhen Yuchang Technology Co., Ltd.
Regarding the relationship with Geely and Li Shufu, Yikatong Technology told CBN reporters that the company is one of many partners in Geely's broad ecosystem. Li Shufu owns 70% of the shares and is a personal shareholding.
"Hubei Yikatong has no direct investment relationship with Shenzhen Yuchang." Yikatong said that Shenzhen Yuchang’s parent company, Hubei Dongjun, is a joint venture between Hubei Yikatong and Hubei Dongjun Industrial Group Co., Ltd., but Hubei Yikatong Tong does not directly participate in the daily operation and management of Hubei Dongjun. The company's legal representative, chairman and general manager are not dispatched by Hubei Yikatong, and are not aware of the above-mentioned "hype" issue.
Regarding specific issues such as the cooperation model and division of labor with Hubei Dongjun Industrial Group Co., Ltd., Yikatong did not reply as of the time of publication.
Regarding the fine issued by the State Administration of Market Supervision on the evening of September 10, "The State Administration of Market Supervision will personally participate in the investigation of roasted seeds and nuts, and will form a joint force with excellent original factories to optimize the channel and benefit the long-term development of the industry." Cinda Electronics analyst side Jing told reporters that not only car chips, but also other (chip agents) shudder.
Regarding the punishment result, a domestic chip agent told reporters that at present, the state has taken measures to suppress the phenomenon of price hikes and stock hoarding, which can ease the tight supply of chips and stabilize prices to a certain extent.
However, from the perspective of the overall industry development, the core problem is still to solve the problem of chip production capacity, so that the "chip shortage" can be alleviated as soon as possible.
Xia Guigen believes that the fines play the role of "killing chickens and monkeys", but it is the changes in supply and demand that can have an impact after all.
"Either the supply-side capacity increases, or the demand-side shrinks, resulting in a new round of balance between supply and demand, and chip prices will undergo essential changes." Xia Guigen told reporters that a lack of cores will lead to a reduction in automobile manufacturing, which will affect the entire vehicle. The delivery of the vehicle will lead to an increase in the price of the whole vehicle and a substantial extension of the delivery time.
At present, the automobile industry has two major industrial circles, one is Europe and the other is Japan.
From the perspective of the industrial chain, the production capacity of FAB for automotive chips in Europe is difficult to recover. The new round of epidemics in Southeast Asia has seriously affected the manufacturing capacity of automotive chip packaging and testing processes. The same is true for the Japanese automotive industry chain.
"China should accelerate the support of the development of the automotive chip industry, so as to support the upcoming new energy vehicle industry landing and industrial development, and vigorously promote the achievement of carbon peak and carbon neutral goals." Xia Guigen said.
Short supply of automotive chips
At the first Munich Auto Show that opened last week, many German auto company executives expressed their concerns about the lack of cores in the market.
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess (Herbert Diess) said: "Since the demand for semiconductors is still high, and the demand will continue to increase, the situation will not normalize in the next few months or even years. "
BMW CEO Oliver Zipse believes: "The overall tension in the supply chain will continue to occur in the next 6 to 12 months."
Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius said that the surge in semiconductor demand means that the automotive industry may have difficulty finding enough chip supply inventories by 2023. "Several chip suppliers have been mentioning structural issues in demand. This may affect the demand. 2022."
Previously, many auto companies were forced to reduce production capacity due to chip shortages, and successively announced production cuts or suspensions.
It is reported that General Motors began to suspend operations at most North American plants last Monday, while Ford Motor said it will suspend pickup truck assembly and production in Kansas City in the next two weeks, and two truck plants in Michigan and Kentucky will cut shifts.
According to statistics from reporters, FCA, Subaru, Nissan, Honda, Volvo, Hyundai, NIO, Toyota and other companies have all been affected this year.
On September 4, Honda’s final vehicle sales data in China released in August showed 91,694 final vehicle sales in China, a year-on-year decrease of 38.3%. Honda China explained that it was mainly affected by the new crown epidemic and tight parts supply. Influence.
The epidemic in Southeast Asia has made the supply of automotive chips more difficult.
On August 17, Xu Daquan, Executive Vice President of Bosch (China) Investment Co., Ltd., stated on social media that due to the worsening epidemic in Malaysia, a certain semiconductor chip supplier’s Muar plant in Malaysia was shut down several weeks before and was again required by the local government. Some production lines will be closed until August 21, which will directly affect Bosch's ESP/IPB, VCU, TCU and other chips. It is expected that the supply will be basically cut off in August.
The Muar factory affected more than 3,000 employees.
Xu Daquan then told reporters that a certain semiconductor chip supplier is STMicroelectronics.
He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xiaopeng Motors, commented when reposting the above-mentioned Malaysian epidemic, “It is more bitter to cut the supply of cores, and to toast and sell.” Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, left a comment with the word "Oh".
It is reported that Malaysia currently has more than 50 semiconductor factories setting up factories there, including Intel, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, NXP, Texas Instruments, ON Semiconductor and other major chip suppliers.
Malaysia's packaging and testing capacity accounts for about 13% of the global packaging and testing capacity.
On the other hand, the production capacity of automotive MLCCs, chip resistors, solid capacitors, and aluminum capacitors will all be impacted to varying degrees.
As one of the automotive chip suppliers, Infineon CEO ReinhardPloss previously stated in an interview that in regions where capacity expansion cannot keep up with consumer demand, this shortage "may continue until 2023."
According to statistics from AutoForecastSolutions, as of August 9, the global reduction in car production due to chip shortages has reached 5.85 million. It is expected that the global car production will be reduced by more than 7 million in 2021.
A week ago, AutoForecastSolutions once again raised its forecast for suspension of the automotive industry. It is estimated that the global automotive industry’s production plan will lose more than 8.5 million vehicles before the end of the global automotive chip supply crisis.
Li Shaohua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said recently that chip resources have been exhausted in the circulation link, and the ability to restore upstream supply has not yet formed, and independent brands need to deal with it.
According to data from the China Automobile Dealers Association, the passenger car market sales in August are expected to reach 1.71 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5%.
Among them, the luxury car market declined for the first time in recent years, with retail sales of 278,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 9.4%.
According to the monitoring data of the Gaogong Intelligent Automobile Research Institute, from January to July this year, the monthly insurance volume of Audi's domestic models has been in a downward trend, from the highest point of 74,200 in January this year to 50,900 in July.
The CBN reporter has previously learned from the industry chain that, as the main component of automotive chips, the delivery cycle of some products of power semiconductor chips has been close to one and a half years.
According to data from the IC distribution platform Mouser Electronics and other websites, 144 products including MOSFET, GaNFET, power MOSFET, etc. have been out of stock in Nexperia's MOSFET devices, and the delivery cycle of out-of-stock products has been long. Up to 69 weeks, and product price increases range from 6% to 37%.
“Due to the acceleration of the global population’s aging and the emergence of the epidemic, the trend of shifting the semiconductor industry chain to localization is accelerating. In response to this phenomenon, we should vigorously and accelerate the construction of chip manufacturing capacity.” Xia Guigen told reporters, In addition, the serious shortage of employees will affect China's trend of undertaking global industrial transfer, and more talents should also be cultivated and guided to enter the semiconductor industry.
The above-mentioned persons stated that at present, due to the high threshold of the integrated circuit semiconductor industry, the training cycle of practitioners is relatively long. If we do not increase efforts to promote the training and increase of practitioners, it may affect the rapid development of the industry in the next 5 to 10 years.
Author: Li Na