chips.
More than one major manufacturers that produce MCU (microcontrol unit) suspended orders. A reporter from China Securities Journal learned on April 22 that after Yilong Electronics, Taiwan, announced in late February that it would suspend order acceptance, Shengqun Semiconductor also issued a notice saying that orders with delivery time will be suspended from April 21, 2021. Sheng Qun is negotiating with the wafer factory to production capacity planning .
As of the morning closing, many A shares MCU concept stocks rose sharply. Silan Micro hit the daily limit, Zhongying Electronics rose 4.06%, Xinhai Technology rose 4.03%, China Resources rose 3.24%, and Neusoft Carrier rose 2.20%.
National Big Fund (i.e. National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund) made progress in investing in Slan Micro. Silan Micro issued an announcement after the market on April 21, saying that it had received the "Notice of Feedback for the Review of Administrative License Projects of the China Securities Regulatory Commission". The China Securities Regulatory Commission has reviewed the administrative license application materials submitted by the company in accordance with the law. The company now needs to make written explanations and explanations on the relevant issues, and submit written reply opinions to the China Securities Regulatory Commission's administrative license acceptance department within 30 working days.
Previously, Silan Micro issued an announcement stating that it plans to issue shares to the National Big Fund to to purchase assets.
Fabs have raised prices again
Shengqun Semiconductor needs to negotiate with the fabs for 2022 before continuing to take orders. The root cause of the problem is that wafer production capacity is short. Regarding the reasons for the suspension of order acceptance, Shengqun Semiconductor made the following 6 explanations:
1, wafer fabs and packaging factories notify that there will be another wave of price increases in the near future, with a price increase of 15%-30%.
2. It is expected that the wafer fab will provide the number of tablets produced in 2022 in early May. After confirmation, the 2022 order acceptance rules will be announced.
3. It is expected to resume acceptance of 2022 orders by mid-May.
4. The delivery date of orders that have been collected in 2022 will be rescheduled according to the number of pieces produced after the determination.
5. After the cover is fully loaded in 2022, the order will be suspended.
6, 2023 delivery orders are expected to be opened to take orders only after the wafer fab provides 2023 production capacity in May 2022.
Shengqun Semiconductor focuses on the design, research and development and sales of MCUs. Its product range includes general and special types, and is mainly 8-bit and 32-bit, covering application fields such as touch, health measurement, industrial control/instrumentation, computer peripherals, home appliances, automotive and safety monitoring.
Shengqun Semiconductor issued a notice of product price increase, deciding that all IC shipments will increase by 15% from April 1. It is said that this is the first time in history that Shengqun has made a comprehensive increase in product line.
According to International E-commerce Information , since March last year, MCU product quotations have continued to rise, and can be said to be the hottest product in the industry in the past two years. Many MCU manufacturers have full production lines and are still in short supply. In recent months, prices have been raised one after another, but orders continue to pour in.
Production capacity shortage is far from over
It is understood that MCU is a microprocessor chip designed for specific applications, and is widely used in the fields of automobiles, industrial control, computers, consumer electronics, etc. is classified according to the width of the bus or data register. MCUs can be divided into 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit microprocessors. MCUs with different bit numbers are suitable for different fields. The higher the bit numbers, the stronger the data processing capacity and the more complex the application scenarios. Currently, the 32-bit MCU market is growing rapidly and has become the mainstream product specifications of MCUs.
analysis believes that thanks to the continuous increase in application demand for automotive electronics, Internet of Things and consumer electronics, the MCU market has grown steadily. IC Insight, a world-renowned semiconductor market research agency, expects the global MCU market size to reach US$22.3 billion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 7.21%.
Cinda Securities Electronics Team said that the demand for MCUs in the development of automotive electronics has greatly increased, with an average of more than 20 MCUs per car. In addition, each car relies on multiple MCU suppliers, such as the 38 MCUs equipped with Audi's luxury SUVs are purchased from seven suppliers including Renesas and NXP.Automotive chip suppliers need to establish a long-term certification process, so they cannot switch from one supplier to another in the short term. When MCU supply is limited, supply can only be solved by increasing production capacity.
Because MCU leading manufacturers such as ST and Renesas have tilted their production capacity towards automotive MCUs with higher prices and profit margins, the production capacity of home appliances and consumer MCUs has decreased. As the pressure of out-of-stock out-of-stock MCUs has not yet eased, the wave of out-of-stock MCUs is accelerating and mid- and low-end MCUs have entered a high-prosperity stage.
MCU is mainly produced through an 8-inch wafer production line, that is, a mature process, and the production capacity is short and difficult to solve. "The demand for chips is still strong, and the capacity shortage will continue until 2022. Among them, the capacity shortage of mature processes will continue until 2023." TSMC CEO Wei Zhejia said recently.
Domestic manufacturers are facing development opportunities
Industry insiders pointed out that in the current MCU market out of stock, the local MCU industry chain is expected to accelerate the market expansion of products and increase the value or shipment of products, thereby fully benefiting from the rising application demand in the MCU market and will also benefit from the process of domestic substitution.
Muoyi Innovation is a 32-bit leading MCU product manufacturer in China and has more than 360 product models. The company's MCU products are actively introduced into major foreign manufacturers and expanding from the consumer electronics field to the industrial control field.
Zhongying Electronics is a leading domestic MCU company. The company opens up the market with customized MCUs in the home appliance field and gradually expands to various industrial scenarios and consumption scenarios. The company focuses on the safety of its products and the anti-dirty ability of its environment. It generally carries wafer foundry on the 8-inch production line of mature processes.
Neosoft Carrier is the earliest white household appliance MCU manufacturer in China that meets international standards. The chips are widely used in white household appliances, industrial control, instrumentation, automotive electronics and other fields, breaking the monopoly position of foreign companies in related fields.
Xinhai Technology is an excellent design enterprise in China for signal chain and MCU chips. In terms of general MCU, the company has successfully broken through industry benchmark customers in the fields of TWS headphone charging tanks, automotive electronics, etc. When the company was surveyed by an institution in March, it said that the current market supply of MCUs is very tight and demand is strong.
Nasda stated in its 2020 semi-annual report that the company is increasing its R&D investment in general MCUs. The company's 32-bit general purpose MCU is independently designed based on ARMCPU, domestic C-SKYCPU and 8-bit CPU. Among them, general-purpose MCU chips based on ARMCPU have been officially sold in bulk.
Silan Micro and China Resources Micro are two semiconductor companies operating in the IDM model (integrated design and manufacturing), both have MCU business.
MCU is one of the important product lines of Silan Micro. In 2020, the company's electronic control MCU products have continued to be widely used in many fields such as industrial inverters, industrial UPS, photovoltaic inverter, textile machinery servo products, various frequency conversion fan applications, and electric bicycles.
In 2020, China Resources Micro independently developed MCU products that use domestic 32-bit CPU IP to achieve customer import. At the same time, the company's research projects include the research and development of 32-bit motor control MCU series products.
This article is from China Securities Journal
