Major Chinese makers of LCD panels, power batteries and solar cells are seeing their production constrained by the ongoing power restrictions in the southwestern province of Sichuan, a major manufacturing hub for the segments and other electronics supply chains, according to industry sources.

E Ink Holdings (EIH) will build new production lines in Taiwan for making e-paper film and in China for making e-paper materials, according to company chairman and CEO Johnson Lee.

AI-based SaaS (software as a service) developer Appier posted consolidated revenues of JPY4.4 billion (US$33.9 million) for the second quarter of 2022, the historically highest quarter level with a growth of 56% on year, according to the company.

South Korea-based IC design houses together occupied 79% of the global supply of OLED display driver ICs (DDI) in the first quarter of 2022, South Korea-based ETNews cited Omdia as indicating.

Hyundai Mobis is reportedly spinning off parts and module production units into two subsidiaries in addition to its current subsidiaries – HL Greenpower, Hyundai IHL, and GIT.

The exponential demand for batteries worldwide drives technology advancements. As a result, making batteries that hold higher energy density has become the industry's collective aspiration. The US-based Enpower Greentech is reaching the goal with its lithium metal anode-based batteries, aiming to start production in 2023.

Chemical materials maker Eternal Materials has disclosed it is expanding production capacity for dry film photoresist at its factory in Suzhou, China, with the additional capacity to come into operation in fourth-quarter 2022.

As US sanctions continue to intensify, China's semiconductor industry has been looking for ways to bypass the curbs. Chiplet, a modular approach of chip design that integrates multiple circuit blocks on an interposer, is one of the alternatives being explored by the Chinese semiconductor industry to stay competitive.

Li Auto, one of China's promising electric vehicle (EV) startups, reached total revenues of CNY8.73 billion (US$1.3 billion) in the second quarter. With a slightly decreasing gross margin of 21.5%, the company said it will launch a new model "sooner than expected" and roll out a battery electric vehicle (BEV) next year.

Panasonic will boost production of EV batteries for Tesla by 10% by 2024, according to Nikkei Asia. Tesla founder Elon Musk said on Twitter on August 15 that the carmaker has produced over three million EVs in total and its Shanghai factory, in operation since 2018, has just rolled out its 1-millionth car.

IC backend materials suppliers expect the impact of the ongoing six-day power restrictions in China's Sichuan province to be "controllable" on their plant operations there, according to industry sources.

China-based OSAT Tongfu Microelectronics, who now commands 80% of AMD's outsourced backend orders, has said its business results will see only limited impact from order cuts amid sluggish market demand.

On August 12, the Bureau of Industry and Security, under the US Department of Commerce, established export controls on four technologies considered emerging and foundational. Among them are computer-aided design (ECAD) software for gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET) and gallium oxide (Ga2O3) substrates. The latest moves are mainly seen as measures targeting China.

Power restrictions imposed by the government of Sichuan Province, China, from August 15 to August 20 will constrain production at local plants including those for notebook computers and other consumer electronics devices.

Proceeding with its goal of setting up a local battery value chain, the world-leading manufacturer CATL recently announced a plan to build a second battery plant in Europe. The facility will be located in Debrecen, Hungary, with an annual capacity of 100GWh.