LCD driver IC prices will not fall in the short term
Korean media pointed out that the serious shortage has caused the maximum price of Semiconductors (chips) to soar to 30 times, and large enterprises are also in the dilemma of not buying enough chips. Samsung Electronics executives went on an urgent business trip to Taiwan, China, and asked MediaTek, a panel driven IC supplier, for help.
The Japanese edition of the Korea Economic Daily reported on the 19th that according to the IT industry, the shortage of chips has plunged the Korean industry into chaos. The shortage of chips from cars has spread to the overall IT industry such as TV, household appliances, PC and small electronic machines through smart phones, Moreover, the shortage has caused the price of some chip products to soar to more than 30 times. The price of specific chips originally traded at US $1 has soared to US $32, and the supply and demand system has completely collapsed. A person related to a semiconductor enterprise said that "silicon wafers as raw materials for chips are also in short supply, and it is difficult to predict when the chip chaos will be lifted".
The report points out that the price of MCU required by the Korean monitor specialized enterprise "W company" was $8 each last year, but now it has soared to $50, more than six times that of last year. A related person of W company said, "the inventory has bottomed out. Even if we continue to place orders regardless of price, we can't ensure the required quantity.".
It is reported that in addition to small and medium-sized enterprises, the situation is the same for large enterprises. Samsung and LG were unable to successfully obtain chip products such as display driver IC (DDI) and PMIC (power management chip), resulting in a reduction of more than 10-20% in the output of TV and household appliances compared with the original plan. Due to the serious shortage of chips, Han Zongxi, director of the video display division of Samsung, which coordinated the television industry, decided to travel urgently. Last week, he took a flight to Taiwan, China to visit the DDI supplier MediaTek and asked MediaTek to supply stably.
The report points out that the shortage of chips has become increasingly serious recently, mainly due to the "inventory competition" among enterprises. Chinese IT enterprises purchase chips at the highest level of 20 times the normal price in the global circulation market. TSMC pointed out that "in order to ensure inventory, some enterprises doubled their orders, which is the main reason for the recent serious shortage". "I heard that as long as MCU appears on the market, it will be immediately bought by Chinese enterprises," said a person related to a camera enterprise in South Korea.
Silicon wafer orders exceed capacity and have no inventory
In a recent interview with Japanese media, Zhenxing Hashimoto, President and CEO of sumco, a large Japanese silicon wafer manufacturer, said, "it has never been seen before that he has been engaged in the semiconductor industry for more than 20 years and there has been a shortage of chips for such a long time. Mainly 8-inch silicon wafer products, and orders exceeding the company's capacity poured in. Both the company and the customer (semiconductor manufacturer) are out of stock. At present, the production of existing equipment is full, and the troublesome thing is that there is no plant to increase the production of silicon wafers. In an exclusive interview with Japanese media in March, helishu hehe, President of Tokyo power electronics (Tel and Tokyo electron), a Japanese semiconductor equipment giant, said that it is estimated that the scale of the semiconductor market will see us $1 trillion in 2030, and he is optimistic that the "big market (long-term sharp increase in semiconductor demand)" will not end in a few years.