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Automotive IGBT demand is booming! IDM orders are full until 2023, and capacity is in short supply

In addition to MCU and MPU, the shortage of automotive chips is the most concerned power IC, of which IGBT is still in short supply, and the delivery cycle of international IDM manufacturers has been extended to more than 50 weeks. Domestic IGBT companies closely follow the market trend, and production capacity is in short supply.

Under the explosion of heat, the supply and demand of IGBT are highly tight.

Automotive-grade IGBT is the core component of new energy vehicle motor controllers, vehicle air conditioners, charging piles and other equipment. The value of power semiconductor devices in new energy vehicles is more than five times that of traditional fuel vehicles. Among them, IGBT accounts for about 37% of the cost of the electronic control system of new energy vehicles, so it is one of the most core electronic devices in the electronic control system.

In 2021, China’s new energy vehicle sales were 3.52 million units, a year-on-year increase of 158%; Sales in the first half of 2022 were 2.6 million units, a year-on-year increase of nearly 1.2 times. It is expected that sales of new energy vehicles will continue to reach about 5.5 million units in 2022, a year-on-year growth rate of about 56%. Driven by the rapid growth of new energy vehicle production and sales, the demand for IGBT is growing rapidly.

However, the concentration of automotive-grade IGBT industry is extremely high. Due to the long verification cycle of automotive-grade IGBT modules and high technical and reliability requirements, the current global supply is still mainly concentrated in IDM manufacturers, including Infineon, ON Semiconductor, SEMIKRON, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Mitsubishi Electric, etc. In fact, some IDM factories publicly stated in the middle of the year, and orders were full until 2023 (it is not excluded that some customers may have over-orders).

In terms of delivery time, the current delivery time of foreign large manufacturers is generally about 50 weeks. According to Future Electronics’ Q4 market report, IGBT, Infineon’s delivery time is 39-50 weeks, IXYS delivery time is 50-54 weeks, Microsemi’s delivery time is 42-52 weeks, and STMicroelectronics’ delivery time is 47-52 weeks.

Why the sudden shortage of vehicle gauge IGBT?

First of all, the construction period of production capacity is long (generally about 2 years), and the expansion of production faces difficulties in equipment procurement, and it is necessary to pay a high premium to purchase second-hand equipment. If the supply capacity of IGBT in the market is much greater than the demand, the price of GBT will fall rapidly. Infineon, Mitsubishi and Fujifilm account for more than eighty percent of the world’s production capacity, and market demand is a key factor they have to consider. Secondly, the requirements of the vehicle level are relatively high, once finalized, the product specifications cannot be temporarily adjusted, although they are all IGBT, but because they are in different subdivisions, the requirements for IGBT are completely different, and there is no possibility of mixing, resulting in high cost of increasing production lines and cannot be apportioned.

IGBT companies have a full order volume, and production capacity is in short supply

Due to the long IGBT lead times of international IDM, domestic EV start-up automakers continue to turn to local suppliers. As a result, many Chinese IGBT manufacturers are actively pursuing capacity expansion projects, as they have already received a large number of IGBT orders from automakers.

(1)   Star Semiconductor

As an IGBT leader, Star Semiconductor achieved a net profit of 590 million yuan in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year increase of 1.21 times, the growth rate exceeded the operating income, and the sales gross margin reached 41.07%, an increase from the previous quarter.

At the third quarter results briefing on December 5, the company’s executives introduced that the main driving force for the revenue growth in recent quarters came from the continuous and rapid increase of the company’s products in new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, energy storage, wind power and other industries, and the continuous increase in market share; With the release of scale effect, product structure optimization, and improvement of production and operation efficiency, the company’s gross profit margin continues to grow.

From the perspective of revenue structure, in January ~ September, Star Semiconductor’s revenue from the new energy industry (including new energy vehicles, new energy power generation, and energy storage) accounted for more than half, becoming the main driving force for the company’s performance growth. Among them, the company’s automotive-grade semiconductor modules have been widely used in domestic mainstream new energy vehicle manufacturers for many years, and its market share has been increasing, and it has become the main supplier of automotive-grade power semiconductor modules for domestic new energy vehicles.

According to previous disclosures, Star Semiconductor’s automotive-grade IGBT modules for main motor controllers continued to increase, with a total of more than 500,000 new energy vehicles in the first half of the year, and it is expected that the number of vehicles will further increase in the second half of the year, of which more than 200,000 A-class and above models will be installed.

(2)   Hongwei Technology

IGBT manufacturer Hongwei Technology also benefited from the development of the new energy market, and the company achieved a net profit of 61.25 million yuan in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year increase of about 30%; Among them, the third quarter achieved 29.01 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly doubled, and the gross profit margin of sales was 21.77%, about half of Star Semiconductor.

Regarding the difference in gross profit margin, the executives of Macro Micro Technology pointed out in an institutional survey in November that the company’s gross profit margin for the whole year of 2022 is at the same level as in 2021, and there is still a certain gap with companies in the same industry, mainly affected by the climbing of production lines.

The company has received plenty of orders, but due to the shortage of upstream core raw materials and the company’s newly added capacity of closed test is still in the climbing stage, it cannot fully meet the market demand at present. Executives of Macro Micro Technology introduced that, due to the substantial increase in the company’s revenue in photovoltaic electric vehicles and other fields, the company actively responds to the needs of downstream customers, and the asset investment is in advance, while the depreciation expense increases sharply. In addition, the entire production line of expansion is still in the climbing stage, and the capacity utilization rate needs to be improved. In the future, with the adjustment of the company’s downstream application structure, the improvement of capacity utilization and the emergence of scale effect, it is expected to improve the company’s gross profit margin.

(3)   Silan micro

As an IDM mode semiconductor, Silan Micro’s main products include integrated circuits, semiconductor discrete devices, and LED products. In the first three quarters of this year, the company achieved a net profit of 774 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.43%, of which, affected by the slowdown in demand in the downstream consumer electronics market, power restrictions, etc., the company’s device chip and LED orders declined, and the company’s net profit in the third quarter fell by about 40% year-on-year.

In a recent institutional survey, Silan Micro executives predicted that the company’s revenue is expected to rise steadily in the fourth quarter, and automotive new energy products have gradually met the conditions for a large number of shipments; The fourth quarter of the white goods market will be the peak season, which can be extended to the first half of next year; The fourth quarter of the white goods market will be the peak season, which can be extended to the first half of next year;

In the IGBT market, Silan Micro’s IGBT single tubes and modules have been widely used in the industrial field and expanded to new energy and automobiles. According to reports, the company’s 12-inch IGBT monthly production capacity is 15,000 pieces, but affected by the shortage of substrates, the actual standard has not yet been reached, and is currently being solved, plus the company’s 8-inch line and 6-inch line have IGBT production capacity, so the proportion of IGBT-related product revenue has been greatly increased, and further growth is expected in the future.

The main problem we are facing now is that there is a shortage of substrate. We and the upstream suppliers are actively promoting the solution of FRD(fast recovery diode), which was a big problem for us in the second quarter, and are now gradually solving it, said a senior executive of Shlan Micro.

(4)   Others

In addition to the above-mentioned enterprises, the IGBT business of semiconductor companies such as BYD Semiconductor, Times Electric, China Resources Micro, and Xinjieneng has achieved great improvement, and automotive-grade IGBT products have also achieved great breakthroughs in the market.

China Resources Micro said in the survey of the receiving agency that the production capacity of IGBT8-inch line is expanding, and the Chongqing 12-inch production line also has the capacity planning of IGBT products. This year IGBT is expected to achieve 400 million sales, next year to double the sales of IGBT products in the automotive industry control of new energy and other fields of sales to further increase, currently accounting for 85%.

Times Electric also recently announced that it intends to increase the capital of Zhuzhou CRRC Times Semiconductor Co., Ltd. by 2.46 billion yuan, and the capital increase will be used for CRRC Times Semiconductor to purchase part of the assets of automotive component supporting construction projects (including IGBT projects) from the company.

IGBT manufacturers enter the bonus period, “spoiler” source of endless

The IGBT dividend period has first appeared, which has attracted many new layouts.

(1)   Xinpengwei

Recently, Xinpengwei said in an institutional survey that the company’s 2022 fixed fundraising project – new energy vehicle chip project will mainly develop high-voltage power supply control chips, high-voltage half-bridge driver chips, high-voltage isolation driver chips, high-voltage auxiliary source chips, and intelligent IGBT and SiC devices.

The main products of Xinpeng Micro are power management chips PMIC, AC-DC, DC-DC, Gate Driver and supporting power devices, and the current effective power management chips total more than 1300 part-numbers.

Xinpengwei said that in the next three years, the company will launch more advanced integrated power semiconductor products for the industrial control market based on the fully upgraded Smart-SJ, Smart-SGT, Smart-Trench, Smart-GaN new intelligent power chip technology platform.

(2) Geely

In October 2021, it was reported that Geely’s IGBT is under development. Recently, Geely’s bidding platform released a “Bidding Announcement for the Supervision Project of the First Phase of Jinneng Microelectronics Factory Transformation Project”.The announcement pointed out that Geely joined the self-made team of IGBT packaging.

According to the announcement, the first phase of the factory transformation project of Jinneng Microelectronics is about 5,000 square meters, and the first phase of the plant with an annual output of 600,000 sets of IGBT power modules is built, mainly including 3,000 square meters of 10,000 square meters of clean rooms and laboratories, 1,000 square meters of power stations, and 1,000 square meters of warehouse and office space.

It is reported that the electric drive systems of Geely New Energy (including Geely, Lynk & Co, Zeekr and Ruilan), the joint venture brand Smart Motor and Polestar almost all use IGBT power modules. Extreme Krypton and Smart Motor will clearly use 400V SiC.


Post time: Dec-12-2022