Electronics

According to news on September 28, due to the implementation of the "dual control of energy consumption" policy by relevant departments, the domestic power curtailment situation has continued to escalate, which has affected more than ten provinces and regions including Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang, and coastal manufacturing industries have generally been affected.

Suzhou Kunshan, known as the base camp of Taiwanese factories, is an important town in the electronic information industry. This area has formed a comprehensive semiconductor industry chain integrating design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, and is also an important production base in the country. More than 70 of Taiwan's top 100 manufacturing companies have settled in Kunshan. Therefore, it can be said that the current power rationing in Suzhou has mainly caused the semiconductor industry to pay attention to Taiwanese factories.

If the power limit continues, inventory digestion may reach a warning line

It is reported that Taiwanese factories are mainly affected by PCB (printed circuit board), heat dissipation, and passive components. For the passive component production line, the "Resistor Erge" Housheng Kunshan plant has been on holiday and has been suspended for more than 10 days; while Kaimei, Lizhi, Wangquan, and Jiuhao have temporarily suspended production for 3-7 days.

Yesterday, a notice of power curtailment and production suspension, which was suspected to be issued by ASE Kunshan factory, was exposed on the Internet, which also caused an uproar.

However, several key suppliers of Apple and Tesla have stopped production in mainland China, such as mechanical parts supplier Yisheng Precision Industry, Xinxing Electronics, Kangerfu and so on.

However, judging from the latest feedback from the industry in the past two days, the overall impact of power rationing on the semiconductor industry factories is not significant. For Taiwanese factories, it is estimated that most of them will only affect a few working days, and at most they will only partially reduce production or price fluctuations. In fact, relatively speaking, the editor also believes that the negative impact of news and psychology is greater, which will also lead to constant inquiries from related customers.

For this reason, factories often have several main countermeasures: scheduling production in other factories; using inventory support; repairing in advance and adjusting follow-up production manpower. However, this is the peak season for new terminal products. It is still unknown whether there will be more curtailment measures next month, which will have a greater impact.

As electronic terminal products have more and more complex functions and higher energy consumption, more passive components are required to maintain normal operation. The current power rationing has undoubtedly disrupted the supply rhythm of the supply chain. In the short-term, inventory can be relied on, which will also help inventory digestion. However, if the power cut continues, the inventory level will face a warning line.

In addition, if the continuity and frequency of power cuts cannot be controlled in the future, the supply of upstream raw materials will also be impacted, which is even more worrying in the industry. And if power curtailment becomes the norm, companies also need to pay attention to green energy and power saving programs.

New hidden worries besides power rationing, has been "severely criticized" for the switch?

The editor learned today that, in addition to the above, various fields such as semiconductors, assembly foundry, panels, etc., currently have less impact. Large factories including the 8-inch wafer fab Suzhou Hejian, ASE, AUO, Wistron, Compal and other large fabs under UMC said yesterday (27) that the mainland factories are currently operating normally.

After all, manufacturers in the semiconductor industry chain should be more experienced in dealing with such emergencies and have their own countermeasures. The editor also learned that in addition to the three categories mentioned above, manufacturers will also take measures such as arranging early shipments, stopping unnecessary power consumption in the factory, and enabling backup power generation systems.

At this stage, the overall market conditions for semiconductors are still in short supply. In addition, the traditional peak season for electronic products in Europe and the United States is approaching at the end of the year, and the production of major manufacturers in various sub-sectors will undoubtedly let the market breathe a sigh of relief. .

However, today’s latest news shows that for the high-profile Taiwan and mainland packaging and testing plants such as ASE, KYEC, Licheng Technology, Changjiang Electronics Technology, Tongfu Microelectronics, Huatian Technology, etc., despite the impact of limited electricity in operation Not big, but Taiwanese factories are also more worried about labor shortages at the end of the year, which will affect their production and shipments.

After all, the relevant packaging and testing plant will maintain the full capacity utilization rate of the Suzhou plant before the end of the year. As a result, the shortage of staff will become more serious by the end of the year, and employees will often change jobs after returning home for vacation. Although companies continue to raise wages, labor shortages are still a major problem in this field. In other words, compared to power curtailment, packaging and testing companies are more concerned about the labor shortage at the end of the year.

In any case, the impact of this incident is too great, and everyone knows it. The People's Daily also spoke out about this, "really commenting" on the behavior of power cuts during peak production seasons. After all, the energy consumption intensity restriction system including "dual energy consumption control" has been implemented for many years, and its goals and requirements have always been stable and clear, and there is no temporary overweight.

In general, the fundamental reason behind the curtailment is that in order to optimize energy consumption indicators, individual local departments will not hesitate to shut down production and even affect the electricity consumption of residents. And this “one size fits all” approach is just like the fact that students make up their homework before school starts. I hope this "turmoil" will ease as soon as possible, and people's lives and business operations will be smooth.