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According to the latest news from the General Administration of Market Supervision of China, in view of the prominent problems such as hype and high prices in the automotive chip market, a case will be filed and investigated against automotive chip distribution enterprises suspected of inflating prices according to price monitoring and reporting clues. In the next step, the General Administration of Market Supervision will also continue to pay attention to the price order of chips and other important commodity markets, further step up supervision and law enforcement, and strictly investigate and deal with illegal acts such as hoarding, driving up prices, and colluding to raise prices.

At a press conference held by the State Information Office on July 16, Huang Libin, spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and director of the Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau, said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will cooperate with relevant departments to ensure and stabilize commodity prices, strengthen publicity and guidance and policy interpretation, support upstream and downstream industries to establish a long-term and stable cooperative relationship, and guide the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to stabilize raw material supply and production, supply and marketing. To deal with the risk of price fluctuations in the market, we should resolutely crack down on hoarding, malicious speculation, and driving up prices. At the seminar on the supply of automotive chips held in March this year, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that automotive chips are important devices related to the core competitiveness of the industry and the key foundation for building an automotive power. It is necessary to co-ordinate development and safety, adhere to the combination of near and far, systematic promotion, raise the level of the whole industry chain, and effectively support the high-quality development of the automotive and semiconductor industries.

After entering 2021, the problem of chip shortage continues to intensify, and various industries are affected by the chip shortage, among which the DIY market and the automobile market are the most damaged, resulting in many products out of stock or even stop production. The shortage of cores in China's automobile industry continues, and the price of chips has risen sharply. According to feedback from a number of car companies, the prices of various types of chips have generally increased by 5 to 20 times. At present, a number of car companies, including Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford, Daimler and so on, have announced that they have to adjust their production plans because of the supply of semiconductor chips. As early as December 2020, Volkswagen Group said that due to chip shortages, its plants in Europe, North America and China were expected to cut production by 100000 vehicles in the first quarter of this year. Honda announced on January 7, due to a shortage of semiconductor chips in vehicle control systems, it will cut production by 4000 vehicles in January. Toyota announced on January 8 that it would reduce production of its Tentu pickup truck at its Texas assembly plant by about 40%. On January 11, Ford announced that its manufacturing plant in Louisville, Kentucky would stop production for a week due to a shortage of chips and related parts, Ford Richter and Lincoln adventurers suspended production, and the plant would temporarily lay off about 3900 people; in addition, Nissan, FCA, Audi, BMW, Daimler and other car companies were also affected by the chip shortage.

According to Bernstein Research, the global shortage of automotive chips in 2021 will cause a loss of production of up to 4.5 million vehicles, equivalent to about 5 per cent of global annual car production. In addition, Inverto, a think-tank owned by Boston Consulting, predicts that the shortage of automotive semiconductor chips will affect the automotive industry for half a year or even three quarters. For this reason, many car companies have adopted the decision of "abandoning the car to protect the handsome".

It is undeniable that the "lack of core" has an impact on the production of automobile manufacturers, and the supply of some models is limited, which is expected to have an impact on the terminal price, that is, the rate of terminal discount may be adjusted. For those models that need a price increase to buy, the rate of increase may also be increased. According to an earlier media interview and survey of a number of 4S stores, it was found that some brand models were unable to lift the car after a price increase. A salesperson from a 4S store in Guangzhou told the media, "the BMW 4-Series has now added 30,000 to its original price, and there is no guarantee that the car will be mentioned this year." In fact, in addition to BMW 4S stores, the difficulty of picking up cars in other brands 4S stores has also become the norm. According to a salesperson at a Lexus 4S store in Guangzhou, at present, taking ES200 as an example, the supply of the car is very tight, the quotations are based on the same day, and the market is changing every day, so there is no way to make promises to customers. Some people in the industry said that the shortage of automotive chips may force China's automotive supply chain to upgrade, especially in key components such as chips. Under the support and guidance of the state, through the improvement of the ability of independent innovation, the localization of automotive chips can be realized, which is no longer controlled by others, and the whole automobile industry chain can be further improved and promoted.

At present, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is actively dealing with the shortage of automotive chip supply. the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set up a working group on the promotion and application of automotive semiconductors and organized coordination meetings many times to give full play to the strength of local governments, vehicle enterprises and chip enterprises. Strengthen the docking of supply and demand and the coordination of work, and formulate targeted measures to promote the supply capacity of automotive chips. In addition, as TSMC, Samsung, SMIC and other manufacturers announced production expansion, the situation of lack of cores in cars is expected to improve in the future, but as it still takes time to expand production capacity and superimpose factors such as complex chip manufacturing processes, short-term disturbances will continue. With the subsequent adjustment and release of chip manufacturers, the lack of cores in cars may be gradually alleviated.

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