Since 2022, due to the epidemic and many other factors, the demand in the consumer electronics market has continued to be sluggish. Terminal brands lowered their annual shipment targets for products such as TVs, PCs, and smartphones, and products such as display panels and driver ICs fell in both volume and price.
1. The price of diodes, transistors and driver ICs will drop by 20%-40%
According to industry insiders, the prices of LED lighting products used for light-emitting chips and driver ICs have begun to fall, and even the shipping prices have also fallen.
Light-emitting chip prices fell by about 20% to 30% year-on-year. Driver chip prices have come down a bit, by about 40%.
2. The price of analog IC market dropped sharply
The structural growth of long-term demand and the short-term imbalance of the superimposed supply chain have led to a large-scale shortage of semiconductor production capacity, the most in short supply of which is analog chips.
Last year, the analog IC market was very hot. Among general-purpose analog ICs, power management ICs have the largest proportion in short supply and become the hottest category in the semiconductor market.
However, this year, with the rapid opening of new production capacity and temporary downstream demand, the demand for electronic products including mobile phones, laptops, TVs, and home appliances is flat. Therefore, analog ICs (such as amplifiers) that are not packaged, low-specification, and short-delivery will be A balance between supply and demand is reached, which leads to price fluctuations.
The wave of analog IC prices will end, and the industry's hottest power management chips cannot continue the upward trend. There are indications that overall market conditions are falling sharply.
3. Consumer MCUs
Recently, IC dealers in mainland China stocked up on consumer MCUs under the previous high prices, and the inventory may last for three to four months. However, due to the uncertainty about the demand outlook this year, resellers have recently moved to lower prices for consumer-grade MCUs.
It's worth noting that the decline in consumer MCU prices was initiated by IC distributors rather than chipmakers themselves. However, this has started to adversely affect the low-cost MCU market, especially those used in small appliances.
4. 3% price reduction for NOR flash memory
The slowdown in demand for mobile phones, personal computers, and consumer electronics in the first two quarters of this year has led to uncertain demand prospects in the second half of 2022, and downstream equipment suppliers are under increasing pressure to destock.
Low-capacity NOR is affected by the demand for consumer electronics in China's closed cities, coupled with the uncertainty of the general environment and the increase in customer inventories, resulting in a price reduction in the second quarter, which is expected to drop by about 3%.
5. DRAM and NAND Flash prices both dropped
DRAM and NAND flash spot prices continued to decline in May due to rising market inflation and weak end-user demand.
Some institutions predict that in the second half of 2022, the visibility of demand for TVs, set-top boxes, home applications, and IoT wearable devices will remain low. Coupled with the increase in wafer production at the end of the year, the supply will show an upward trend.
6. GPUs drop from March to May
In March of this year, GPU prices began to trend downward. In fact, as of May, PC GPU prices are still on a steady downward trend.
The decline in GPU prices is mainly due to the severe impact of encrypted digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, resulting in an increasingly unprofitable mining market, a decline in GPU demand, and a loosening of graphics card prices.
Shares of global GPU giant Nvidia have fallen 31% since 2022, while shares of GPU manufacturing leader AMD are down about 37%.
All in all, from the peak of the pandemic in the past 2020, the surge in demand and the slump in supply have coincided, triggering an unprecedented wave of core shortages. This year, the situation is quite the opposite. Factors such as the epidemic, inflation, and geopolitical conflicts have led to weakening consumer demand.
