Some Taiwan-based IC design houses and other chip vendors in Japan and the US may cut their orders for semiconductor parts by 10-20% in the second quarter on top of weak demand in the Chinese automobile market and sagging consumer power in the US and Japan due to the inflationary impacts, according to industry sources.
However, international IDMs, such as Infineon, NXP Semiconductors, Texas Instruments (TI), and Renesas, still experience steady orders from their automobile customers, said the sources.
Products named for order adjustments include power management IC (PMIC) and driver IC (DDI), which are considered long-term materials.
In addition, power-related products such as automotive metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) are among the newly added products for downward adjustments.
Judging from the component order cuts with the correspondent auto models, it indicates that most Chinese auto brands and Tesla, and a Japanese car vendor are experiencing a stockpile of automobile inventories, forcing IC vendors to slash their orders, said the sources.
Most Taiwan-based semiconductor suppliers, which have enjoyed relatively robust sales over the past three years due to the shortage of automotive chips, have signed long-term agreements (LTAs) with their suppliers.
Some IC design houses acknowledged that they would likely face penalties due to the breach of LTAs.
However, those IC suppliers stressed that their automotive customers have requested for order reductions or deferred shipments without negotiations for price cuts – a sign indicating that auto vendors are facing a sluggish demand.
Article translated by Steve Shen
