AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/05 Report--

Since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the shortage of chip supply chain has been restricting the development of the global automobile industry. due to the influence of lack of core, the global automobile industry is generally facing the pressure of stopping production and reducing production, at the same time, the lack of core also directly led to some car companies have to reduce or delay the delivery date of new cars. Russia will restrict the export of inert gases such as neon by the end of this year in response to previous EU restrictions on the country's semiconductor exports, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said Tuesday, Reuters and CCTV reported. Neon, krypton, xenon and other inert gases are indispensable raw materials in the chip manufacturing process. According to relevant estimates, Russia accounts for 30% of the global inert gas supply. After the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, global neon and xenon prices jumped for a time, and analysts believe that Russia's inert gas export restrictions may aggravate the supply shortage in the global chip market.

In the past May, a number of car companies CEO have publicly said that they are facing a "lack of core" trouble. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Automobile, posted a recent nationwide video of Koda Duck holding a note saying "urgently for a chip" on his personal Weibo on May 26th, pointing out that the video reflects the current lack of chips in his supply chain team. At the same time, he Xiaopeng stressed: in fact, most of the missing chips are cheap chips, rather than those that are concerned by many people to start a business or are very expensive. At the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area International Automobile Expo, he Xiaopeng also directly expressed the problem of skyrocketing chip prices. cheap chips with an original purchase cost of only a few yuan were fried to several thousand yuan, such as chips quoted at 3000, 2700, and 2500 yuan. but the actual purchase cost is only 3.50 yuan, 7 yuan, in this environment, there is no way to do procurement.

In addition, several media reported that Bosch plans to raise product prices due to rising cost pressures such as logistics, raw materials and energy, and is currently renegotiating contracts with car companies. However, Bosch did not respond to the news. But Shen Hui, CEO of Weimar, said: "Bosch's price increase is not a rumor." On May 31, Shen Hui, CEO of Weimar, also pointed out on his personal Weibo that there has been another round of price increases in car chips recently, saying: "Bosch's price increase is not a rumor, there are other Tier1." The price increases are all essential chips, and we have made a simple estimate that the chip cost of smart electric vehicles has exceeded that of battery packs. In this context, it is difficult for a single 10,000-yuan lidar to stay hot. It also means that the electric car industry track has shifted from batteries to chips. Enterprises should still do a good job in lean management to avoid price increases in end products. Chen Yudong, president of Bosch China, once said in an interview with the media: "this year has been a year of sharp price increases in the auto industry, mainly caused by batteries, but other auto parts such as chips have also risen."

In mid-May, Helmut Gassel, chief marketing officer of Infineon, a supplier of automotive chips, also revealed that among the currently unconfirmed orders, the backlog of Infineon orders from January to March in 2022 increased by 19.4% from a month earlier to 37 billion euros (263.362 billion yuan), more than triple the company's 2021 revenue.

Earlier, Huawei smart car solution BU CEO Yu Chengdong also pointed out in an interview with the media that he had just entered the automotive field and was not familiar with and did not know the supply situation of the industry. He did not know that the core shortage in the whole industry was so serious that a chip from 10 yuan to 20 yuan was fried to 2500 yuan, while a car would use 9 such chips, which was too expensive to accept such a high speculation price and would rather sell less.

In fact, for automakers and car companies, the lack of any key chips in the manufacturing process of a car will lead to the normal production and delivery of the vehicle. In this environment, a number of car companies have no choice but to achieve delivery through reduction. For consumers, the shortage of chip supply chain also has a great impact, after all, the shortage of chips and other raw materials makes car prices rise, consumers have to pay for it. Due to the influence of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the epidemic situation, logistics and other factors, the price of raw materials continues to rise. The media reported that, taking the chip as an example, the price of silicon, its important raw material, has been high and in a state where there is no material available. Because many raw materials of the chip rely on overseas imports, but the import volume is not as good as it used to be due to many factors. And the price of lithium carbonate, one of the raw materials for power batteries, the core component of new energy vehicles, has also skyrocketed. For example, in just one year, the price has risen from 50,000 yuan per ton to 500000 per ton. At present, with the resumption of production of the domestic industrial chain in late May, the price of lithium carbonate is rising again. According to the incomplete statistics concerned by the automobile industry, nearly 50 new energy models from more than 20 car companies, including BYD, Xiaopeng Automobile, ideal Automobile and Nashi Automobile, have announced price increases since the beginning of this year. But the good news is that since the beginning of this year, more than 60 companies have announced investment plans for the lithium industry chain and the state and local governments have also increased subsidies for car purchases.

Overall, the automotive industry is still in a state of shortage of key components, and industry insiders expect that the shortage of chips will continue in the short term and is not expected to ease until the second half of this year or 2023.

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