The global supply of chips has been tight for more than a year, among MCU is one of the focuses, and the situation of short supply has not been relieved. This year, the COVID-19 has repeated. Although many MCU manufacturers have begun to expand their production, the supply and demand of automotive MCU chips have not been relieved.
Nearly 20 internationally renowned auto companies, including Volkswagen, Daimler, Ford, Nissan, and Tesla, and more than 100 auto factories have successively reduced or stopped production.
But from another point of view, the MCU market with high demand has attracted many manufacturers, who are eager to occupy a piece of cake. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for domestic MCU manufacturers.
STM32 MCU
The global automotive MCU manufacturers mainly include ST, NXP, TI, Microchip, Renesas, and Infineon (Cypress was acquired), with a market share of over 80%. Due to the accelerated transformation of the automotive market, which requires more structural components. Plus the increase in the application of industrial electrical and automation, and the rapid popularization of products in emerging fields such as smart homes, medical, the Internet of Things, and new energy, the global demand for Microcontrollers is strong, resulting in a continual shortage of supply.
In 2022, orders for automotive MCUs are almost full, and prices continue to rise. Among them, STMicroelectronics announced on March 24 that they would raise prices for all product lines in the second quarter. Today, the demand for MCUs is not only in quantity. With the promotion of emerging industries, the new requirements for low power consumption, high computing power, customization, and special peripherals are gradually increasing.
The MCU market with high demand also provides development space for domestic MCU companies. Among them, GigaDevice, which has certain influence and development momentum, has ranked first in China's 32-bit MCU market for 7 consecutive years. Its products are widely used in the markets of industrial automation, consumer electronics, Internet of Things, motor control, inverters, communication networks, automotive peripherals, etc. Other MCU companies represented by Sino Wealth, Chipsea Tech, and Fudan Microelectronics Group are targeting the global home appliance and consumer electronics markets.
At present, there is still a considerable gap between them and the international giants. If they want to occupy a certain share in the high-end MCU market, Zhang Binlei, senior analyst of ICwise, pointed out that in addition to the need to improve the technical level, design capabilities, foundry technology, and product performance to be equivalent, it is necessary to grasp the demand changes in the high-end MCU market, and can directly cooperate with demand terminals (such as auto companies) in a specific environment to develop new demands brought about by industrial changes, from a chaser to a market leader.
How tight of the MCU supply?
The person who works in the semiconductor industry may realize, at the time of requesting a quote, that it has ended before it started. Not only the chips are out of stock in a blink, but the price also rises from time to time. Review the trend of various electronic components lead-time in 2022 Q1, the trend of MCUs supply has not been relieved.
The lead-time trend of MCUs in 2022 Q2
Compare with the lead-time of 2022 Q1, the shortage of MCUs is even more pronounced. Below is organized the Lead-time of the 6 major manufacturers in the MCU/MPU/automotive chip category. Most of MCUs are in a state of shortage, especially for ST and NXP. Only the 32-bit MCU (Renesas Synergy) is shorter than that of Q1, are 38 weeks.
For electronic component purchasers, it is important to find a reliable MCU distributor. The prices of MCU chips are unstable and going up. You may not realize the price changed during your hesitation. When you deal with an urgent order, it will be a nice choice to select Hard Find Electronics LTD., which is an electronic component distributor that sources hard-to-find electronic parts and offers with shorter lead-time.