Electronics

It was reported on May 29 that Samsung Electronics may cut its mobile phone production by 30million this year, from the original planned 310million to 280million. Korean media also disclosed that, compared with Apple's practice of reducing the production of medium - and low-end models, the cut covers Samsung's mobile phones at all prices, including flagship phones. The reason for cutting the bill is that global inflation and the war between Russia and Ukraine have weakened the demand for mobile phones.

In fact, among many mobile phone brands, Samsung's sales performance in the first quarter was not satisfactory. Canalys reported that due to the adverse economic conditions and the traditional off-season in the first quarter, the global mobile phone shipment fell by 11% year-on-year in Q1 2022. While Samsung Electronics still firmly controls the No. 1 position in the global mobile phone market share, leading the market with a market share of 24%, up from 19% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Apple followed closely, with a market share of 18% in Q1 in 2022.

At the same time, Samsung Electronics' products are still the most competitive products in the global market due to its advantages in chip, curved screen, memory and other technologies and supply chain. Take chips for example, more than one third of DRAM and NAND memory chips in the world are manufactured by Samsung.

Now, Samsung, with its strong comprehensive strength, is going to reduce the production of mobile phones in an all-round way.

From the brand side to the suppliers, there has been news of cutting production recently: it is reported that Apple's goal is to reduce the sales of iPhone Se by 20%; Xiaomi, oppo and vivo, the three major mobile phone brands in China, have informed their suppliers that they will cut their orders by about 20% in the next few quarters.

Considering that the demand for mobile phones, PCs and consumer applications is difficult to get rid of the fatigue for the time being, some people in the industry expect that some consumer chips may take over and cut the order. Taiwan electronic times previously reported that the supply chain revealed that the price support of NOR flash was likely to suffer impact, and the small volume nor entered a price turning point from the second quarter. The supply chain revealed that although the contract price in the third quarter had not been finalized, the inventory pressure of downstream customers continued to rise, and the pressure of nor price decline in the second half of 2022 was difficult. Taiwan Economic Daily also reported recently that due to weak panel demand and falling prices, the industry has reported that drive IC factories have slashed the amount of wafer foundry chips, with a range of 20-30%.