It's a global shortage
Recently, according to data provided by an autonomous car company, as of August 9, the loss of automobile production caused by the epidemic has reached 5.853 million vehicles, of which China is 1.122 million vehicles, and there is no chip on the market to sweep. In August, the supply of key chip parts of only one Bosch company will reduce the production of 900,000 vehicles in the Chinese market; In August and September, the production reduction of China's passenger car market will reach 2 million units.
As a result, the phenomenon that many popular models of brands are difficult to find a car has changed from the original \"car and other people\" to \"people and other cars\".
Q: Why is there a global shortage of automotive chips?
1. Affected by the global epidemic
The global automotive chip production capacity is mainly concentrated in Europe and the United States, most of these areas are the hardest hit by the epidemic, so the response to the isolation policy means that enterprises can only stop production or reduce production, and the supply of automotive chips naturally has a shortage.
2. The demand for automotive chips is growing rapidly
In recent years, major cars are developing towards intelligence, semiconductor chip electronic equipment accounts for an increasing proportion of accessories in the car, and now it has become the standard of most new energy vehicles.
3. The semiconductor industry underestimated demand for automotive chips
Chip production cycle is relatively long, the average cycle of 26 weeks, to go through thousands of processes, enterprises often do not prepare too much inventory, after all, oversupply will appear huge losses; However, after the epidemic has eased, the recovery of the Chinese market has made the demand for chips increase sharply, and each inventory has been in short supply.
4, the production capacity of consumer chips to seize the production line
There are only a few mature chip manufacturers in the world, and these businesses not only produce automotive chips, but also often need to produce chips for mobile phones and computers. According to statistics, the size of the automotive chip market is smaller than that of mobile phones and personal computers, so manufacturers are likely to prioritize the production of consumer chips.
5. Unexpected shutdown of multiple chip factories
In late October 2020, a fire broke out in Japan's AKM (Asahi Kasei Semiconductor) factory, which lasted 91 hours and caused the loss of the core wafer fab. In February 2021, the United States semiconductor town of Texas suffered a blizzard impact, and the snow disaster led to several chip suppliers in Texas being forced to stop production, and these accidents made it difficult for manufacturers to restore production capacity in the short term.
6, car companies stock up to exacerbate the shortage of chips
When everyone knows that chips are difficult to buy, it is inevitable that there will be a scramble for chips, many car companies even if they do not need to use so many chips in the short term, but in case of emergencies, they will prioritize stockpiling, which further exacerbates the problem of chip shortage.
Global distribution of car chips means out of stock. In the early stage of the epidemic, the major car gauge chip manufacturers were too pessimistic to estimate the global automotive demand due to the reduction of the epidemic, leading to car gauge chip manufacturers Infineon, stmicroelectronics, NXP, Renesas, etc., have cut orders to chip foundry, TSMC has warned automotive chip customers, do not easily cut orders, otherwise the next customer will make up, it can not release production capacity.