"Structural shortage" is expected to be the main tone before the market recovery; The turning point of market changes is mostly when the relationship between supply and demand will return to balance, such as when the current "destocking" policy which has been maintained for two quarters will change; Or can any new industry trends appear in addition to AIoT, new energy vehicle, stimulating new demand.

On the one hand, some large-sized end customers are no longer so urgent for spot buying and have widely released schedule demands. Since the delivery time of most materials of TI, MICROCHIP, ST, NXP, INFINEON,   ON and other brands has not returned to normal, the acceptance degree of the ordering price of such materials is not clear. On the other hand, for orders that are urgently needed, the competition between price and delivery time is very fierce, including but not limited to the situation that some companies ship at a loss to weaken the financial pressure of overloading the goods.

At this time, we should strengthen the contact with customers and supply channels, give play to the advantages of flexible inventory and can provide value-added services; Set up a positive mindset and don't be impetuous.

Texas Instruments

With the end of the first quarter of 2023, automotive chips are still hot for TI ;the spot price of conventional parts are gradually falling to price in the second half of 2021. Not only for PMIC, but also for automotive electronic models, which had been soaring.The price has fallen precipitously with the closure of customer demand.

Sluggish demand, oversupply or speculative company throwing and other factors caused the price fluctuation.Around the third quarter of 2023, the price of most conventional parts are expected to return to the stock price of 2020.  Soaring vehicles parts and shortage parts will become less and less. The delivery time of some DSP parts is still very long. In addition, with manufacturer 's strict control over the price of high-end parts,  the spot price should continue to be high in the first half of 2023,  if customers are not in a hurry, they can consider the lead time parts.

Analog Devices

In the first quarter, ADI brand general materials saw a lot of price drops. As the delivery time was shortened to 13 weeks, such materials turned to the buyer's market. Although ADI has a high market share in analog chips and a wide range of applications; However, according to the current situation, consumer chip demand is not likely to increase sharply in the short term, and the growth point is industrial chip demand. When downstream demand is weak and upstream supply is oversupplied, more methods of "destocking" are used.

Benefiting from the increasing prosperity of the optical communications industry, the popularity of LTM power chips, such as LTM4633MPY#, LTM4700IY#, etc., has not improved in March and is expected to recover gradually in the fourth quarter. Therefore, this type of material may have a new breakthrough, which needs to be paid more attention to.

High-end analog chips heat, customer inquiries increase; The fluctuation of inventory price is obvious.

In addition to some out-of-stock materials, there will be a lot of products that can be delivered within 14 weeks in the second half of the year. Before that, if the goods are sold at a favorable price, it is a good time to stock up. It is said that the original factory of ADI will adjust the price in May. The specific affected products and the increase range are still to be confirmed.

ST Microelectronics

At present, the ST spot market is also in a state of "fire and ice". For example, the delivery time of 103 and 407 seris has been shortened to 16-24 weeks, and manufaturers have plenty stock arriving; spot suppliers who have too many backlog on hand have offered low-margin sales, some models have reduced their prices significantly compared to the beginning of January, such as the 103 and 407 series, used in consumer electronics, Internet of Things, and industrial control products.

Parts used in automotive is still popular due to its core technology can not be replaced in a short time , the delivery time is 52 weeks at least, the price remains high; even if there are low-priced flowing into the market, it is also sold out fast, such as L9369 for body stabilization system, L9680 for airbag; VNHx, STM32H7x of 32-bit MCU and so on. After the production capacity shifts from consumer to automotive,we expect to see delivery picking up in the third quarter.

MICROCHIP

Gateway chips, which have been popular for a while, have fluctuated in March (KSZ9031x, KSZ8863x)，the spot prices soared in the 4th quarter of 2022 this series will arrive in succession , due to the stimulation of overseas demand, and the prices will fluctuate in the 2nd quarter according to supply-demand influence.

This series is used in laser/network printers, broadband gateways, industrial control and other industries, and relevant sales colleagues can pay attention to it.

Currently hot MCU of Microchip (including the 8-bit and 16-bit MCU of the traditional ATMEL) has an irregular schedule. For example, some ATXMEGAx’s Lead Time lasted 52 weeks, while some AT91x arrived one after another. In addition, the original factory has announced a 5-10% price increase, the price of raw materials also increased due to shortage. So this year as a whole, the lead time of popular MICROCHIP is difficult to return to normal.

NXP Semiconductors

At present, most of the NXP brand materials delivery time has returned to normal, a small number of car MCU prices remain high due to tight delivery. Now target price given by customer will have room for bargaining, because spot prices generally decline as stock increased, and the stocking distributor received less orders in the first quarter due to their insist on margin.

Here are basic situations of some NXP product series.

The 32-bit MCU series, whose part number starts with LPCx, has relatively stable leadtime, so leadtime buy can be considered if there is suitable demand.

Automotive MCU series whose part number starts with FSx, MCFx has still long leadtime, at least 52 weeks, and it is not expected to get much improvement before the end of the year.So not many customers will consider leadtime buy unless they have attractive prices.

The leadtime of Freescale's MK series is maintained at 45-50 weeks, which has eased compared to 2022.Customers are likely to accept high prices on a few shortage parts, despite the significant price fluctuations.This series is widely used in automotive, industrial, mobile devices, smart home, etc.

The 16-bit MCUs series whose part number starts with S9x meets short supply and hot demand, so the stock prices are at very high position.

Memory

Memory device Storage has been affected by the downturn of consumer demand market such as PC, server and smart phone since 2022, and the major storage factories are circulating in the "price war"cycle of low capacity utilization and high inventory level. At present, EMMC, NAND FLASH, DDR and NOR FLASH present different market conditions. In the long run, the major storage manufacturers will make adjustments in the second and third quarters of this year instead of waiting for the price reduction.

There is a demand for brands such as MICRON (model MT41) in DDR, and the price fluctuates with the spot demand; the price has basically fallen to the bottom before, and some of them have reached the lowest level in history. Once the customer demand has the willingness to place orders, the price competition of spot traders is fierce, but there is not much room for concessions.

NOR FLASH brand WINBOND, MXIC has-been Internet celebrity. In 2021,

It's very hot but this month the current price is basically to the end, the current appropriate demand can be arranged for stock.

Discrete Devices  

Discrete devices are mostly highly versatile semiconductors with a wide range of applications, and are currently the products that are most prone to temporary demand; such as IGBTs, high-voltage and low-voltage MOSFETs, etc. Take IGBT chips, whose demand has soared in the two mainstream applications of electric vehicles and solar energy, as an example: currently dominated by European and Japanese manufacturers, INFINEON ranks first with a market share of more than 30%, followed by FUJI, ON, TOSHIBA, and ST back.

INFINEON acquired GaN Systems in March. Since then, INFINEON has become an original chip manufacturer with three main power semiconductor technologies: silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride; it has strengthened such as consumer electronics, data center servers and power supplies, and renewable Chip dominance in energy systems, industrial motors and automotive electronics industries.

The market situation of riding the wind no longer exists. At this stage, chip practitioners need not lose heart. Whether they have just entered the industry or have taken root for many years, they all need to know more about the attributes of chip itself, strengthen and consolidate business skills, and accumulate a precipitated working mentality for mutual encouragement.