The shortage of power transistors is improving
The semiconductor market in 2023 will start with negative growth compared with the previous year, especially in the memory market, where excess supply due to sluggish demand has become a serious problem
On the other hand, due to the shortage of semiconductors in the automotive industry, the state of unscheduled production persists. However, the supply system of power transistors, which was the most scarce before, is expected to improve
Total shipments of power transistors from January to June 2023 increased by 21.1% from the previous year, showing an extremely favorable trend
The total shipments of IGBT, a representative product of power transistors, increased by 13.0% year-on-year, while the shipments of another representative product, MOSFET, decreased by 1.5% year-on-year, which was lower than that of the previous year.
Temporary shortage of MCUs and analog ICs
Automotive semiconductors considered power transistors——MCUs and analog ICs are temporarily in short supply
Among the total shipments of automotive ICs from January to June 2023, automotive analog increased by 28.9%, automotive MCU increased by 25.1%, and automotive logic increased by 24.8%. In terms of value, both of them maintained a growth rate of more than 20%.
In 2021 and 2022, automakers can't produce as planned, so they have a certain amount of backlog
From the perspective of people in the semiconductor industry, the delivery time of semiconductor products that are in short supply has become normal now, and the shortage problem should be resolved, but this dilemma has not been alleviated in the automotive industry, and the industry is still in an unpredictable situation
Continued Shortage of Analog Wireless ICs
The delivery of car smart keys (electronic keys) also takes time. Smart keys are equipped with extremely versatile analog radio ICs. It is also a semiconductor product and has users all over the world. It is prone to temporary growth in demand for a period of time.
Analog wireless ICs are also used in various other applications, and are expected to become key devices for RFID (tags using wireless communication) in the future, and there should be many semiconductor manufacturers planning to increase production
Traffic IC cards will also have built-in analog wireless ICs. Recently, it has been reported that production of some traffic IC cards may be discontinued due to lack of semiconductors. However, for many users, it is easier to install and use a transportation IC card as a smartphone application than to obtain a card, and the demand for transportation IC cards may not continue to increase
The memory market has improved significantly
As far as the entire semiconductor market is concerned, the memory market will show a significant improvement in June 2023, which shows that the bottom period has ended. Given the lack of positive news on smartphones, PCs and data centers, it's too early to be too optimistic
Automotive Semiconductor Supply Chain Issues
With advances in connectivity, automation, sharing, and electrification, the automotive industry will be transformed, and the supply chain will be further transformed. The role of semiconductors in the automotive industry will be more important than ever, and each company's management strategy may become more complex
