Big manufacturers of automotive chips say that they can only meet 70% of customers' needs and will have to raise prices in the second half of the year to next year.

Automotive chip manufacturers ushered in a rising pattern of volume and price, and the bright second-quarter forecast of Italian and French semiconductors confirmed the ultra-high-profile demeanor of the industry. In the second quarter, revenue rose 43.4 per cent year-on-year to $2.992 billion, while net profit rose 357.2 per cent to $41.2 million. Its CEO Jean-Marc Chery said that the revenue and gross profit margin of Italy and France fell at the top of the company's forecast range, driven by the continued strengthening of global demand.

Jean-Marc Chery said that orders for automotive chips remained strong in the second quarter, and demand was still much higher than Italy's existing and planned capacity. The visibility of orders has been up to 18 months, or about 72 weeks, and the supply and demand of chips will not gradually return to normal until the first half of 2023. The company also predicted that it would further raise product prices from the second half of this year to next year, while the company's average chip price in 2021 has risen 5% year-on-year.

Data show that Italian Semiconductor has focused on automotive power semiconductors for many years and is one of the top five suppliers of automotive semiconductors in the world. Its main customers include American companies Apple, Tesla and most major automakers.

Under the background that the mismatch between supply and demand of automotive chips can not be alleviated, the first-class suppliers represented by Italian semiconductors are actively promoting the research and development and production expansion of automotive semiconductors.

At the second-quarter earnings meeting, St announced that it would raise its capital expenditure forecast for 2021 from $2 billion to $2.1 billion and said it could meet only 70 per cent of customers' total demand this year, but as the company invests in production capacity, that proportion will rise to 85-90 per cent next year. On the 27th, the company's first batch of 8-inch silicon carbide wafers were released, marking an important phased success of the company's production expansion plan for automotive and industrial customers.

Infineon and NXP have reached a long-term supply agreement with wafer foundry in Taiwan; at the request of customers, the MCU plant at Renesas Mountain pass will be closed until June next year. MCU is the largest part of automotive chips (about 30%), and it is also the hardest hit area of the missing core of the car. The new plant built by Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Roma at the RomApolo plant has been completed recently and is expected to run in 2022 to meet the production capacity of silicon carbide power control chips for applications such as electric vehicles.

At present, there are still many items out of stock of automotive chips, which are extended to various manufacturing processes, such as 12-inch factory's automotive microcontroller (MCU) and image sensor (CIS); 8-inch factory's automotive micro-electromechanical system (MEMS), discrete component (Discrete), high-performance power management IC (PMIC) and display-driven IC (DDI).

Therefore, in addition to the leading foundry, Liandian, SMIC, Huahong Semiconductor, World Advanced and other manufacturers who focus on mature process OEM are also expected to benefit from it.

The chip shortage is mainly due to MCU, Core Sea Technology previously announced plans to raise 420 million yuan for automotive MCU chip research and development and industrialization projects; national technology MCU chip can be used in the field of automotive electronics applications; Zhaoyi innovative automotive specification-level MCU is being promoted according to plan; Zhongying Electronics has invested in the research and development of automotive electronic body control MCU chip.

In addition, Zhang Xin, an analyst at Zhongtai Securities, predicts that the automotive industry SiC is expected to enter the first year of volume in 2021, suggesting to focus on SiC substrate material manufacturers Lou Xiao Technology, Tianke Heda (3.7% of Tianfu Energy), Shandong Tianyue (unlisted), device vendors Sida Semiconductor, Huarun Micro, Yangjie Technology, Tyco Tianrun (unlisted), etc.; contract leader Sanan Integration (San'an Optoelectronics Co., Ltd.).