Electronics

Wafer production capacity is tight, and consumer electronics terminals such as mobile phones, personal computers, and televisions are in strong demand. It is expected that the price of panel driver chips will continue to rise in the second quarter. Among them, DDIC products for mobile phones are expected to increase by about 13% due to the shortage of 12-inch wafers; DDIC products for personal computers are expected to increase by more than 10% due to the price increase of panel manufacturers; DDIC products for TVs are expected to increase due to the supply and demand of 8-inch wafers. Imbalance, the price increase is estimated to be about 10%.

Comment on CINNO Research

1. A series of "black swan" incidents such as the power outage of UMC's Hsinchu plant, the Fukushima earthquake in Japan, and the snowstorm and power outages in Texas have frequently occurred, exacerbating the shortage of upstream wafer capacity, and wafer prices continue to rise and transmit downstream;

2. The competition for 8-inch foundry production capacity for automotive chips has led fabs to gradually reduce the production of LCD driver ICs. At the same time, DDIC's production capacity in each process segment is preempted, especially at the 150nm process node by automotive MCU, PMIC, low-end CIS and other products extrusion;

3. The demand for traditional packaging has surged and the production gap is large. However, due to many factors such as high equipment costs, the drive chip packaging and testing plant is not willing to expand production, and the price of drive chip packaging and testing may further rise;

4. Mobile phone brands actively stock up to respond to the launch of new models in the second quarter, coupled with strong demand in the automotive and consumer electronics markets, further expanding the 12-inch wafer capacity gap. In the first quarter, the price of DDIC for mobile phones increased by more than 20%. A certain inventory reserve is completed, and the price increase of DDIC in the second quarter is expected to drop to about 13%;

5. In the first quarter, demand for online education and remote office remained high. In order to ensure their own production capacity, panel makers increased prices to buy chips, resulting in an increase in the price of DDIC for IT in the first quarter of 5-15%. CINNO Research predicts the second quarter Taiwanese chip manufacturers led the rise of DDIC, and IT used DDIC is estimated to increase by more than 10%;

6. The TV industry has entered the new product launch season. At the same time, the North American epidemic subsidy and home appliance promotion have led to high demand for TV. The supply and demand imbalance of DDIC caused the price of TV DDIC to increase by about 7% in the first quarter. CINNO Research predicts the price increase in the second quarter. It will still be around 10%.