1.9 Capacitor Manufacturers Suspected of Monopoly Being Fined 254 Million Euros by the European Union
Original title: 9 capacitor manufacturers have been fined 254 million euros by the European Union on the alleged monopoly. Can the price increase be curbed?
According to the micro-network news, in the past year, passive components have continued to rise sharply in price, which still falls short of supply. This has caused the industry to agonize. In the history of passive components, there have been two surges in price, respectively in the 1987-1988 and 2000 killers. The level of demand driven by the price surge. Passive devices, including capacitors, resistors and other products continuously out of stock, how is the price rise?
On the 21st, the European Commission of the European Union (EU) confirmed that nine Japanese companies such as Nippon Chemi-con violated the EU competition law (Japan’s exclusive prohibition law) for aluminum electrolytic capacitors widely used in smartphones, home appliances, and automotive parts. Tantalum electrolytic capacitors were subject to price monopoly, so a total of approximately 254 million euros (approximately 33 billion yen) was fined for eight of them.
According to foreign media disclosures, companies that have been recognized by the European Union as having a capacitor price monopoly include Jiamei Engineering, Hitachi Chemicals, Rubycon, Matsuo Electric, TOKIN Corporation (formerly NEC Tokin), ELNA and Panasonic's Sanyo Electric, etc. , Freed from punishment.
The European Commission pointed out that nine companies including Jiameigong secretly exchanged price intelligence to avoid price competition during the period from 1998 to 2012, of which Jiamei was fined 98.7 million euros and the fine was the highest, followed by Nichicon’s 72.9 million euros. Hitachi Chemical was hit by A penalty of about 18 million euros.
Action code 'Cartel', five capacitor manufacturers have been penalized in Singapore for plotting monopoly on a regular basis
In fact, it is not uncommon for passive device manufacturers to be penalized. On January 5th this year, the Singapore Competition Commission (CCS) issued a record record of antitrust history in Singapore for the international cartel behavior of five aluminum electrolytic capacitor manufacturers. ' Fines, fines totalling S$19,552,464 (nearly 100 million yuan).
The five companies are Panasonic, Nichicon, ELNA, Rubycon and Chemi-con. Among them, Panasonic was first exempted from fines by applying to CCS for leniency.
The conspiracy monopolistic activities of the five companies, also known as cartel, started as early as 1997. The company’s top executives came to Singapore for meetings almost every month until 2013. During this period, the five companies were engaged in monopolistic agreements for a long period of time. , Including fixed prices and exchange of confidential information concerning sales, pricing, etc. involving customers in Singapore. Moreover, these five companies account for more than two-thirds of Singapore's relevant market share. During the investigation, CCS and the United States, the European Union, Japan and Taiwan The competition law enforcement agencies exchanged and cooperated.
Five capacitor manufacturers conspired to monopolize the market and were fined more than 1955 yuan by the Singapore Competition Bureau. This is the highest fine the authorities have ever imposed.
The five fine companies are local subsidiaries of Japanese capacitor manufacturers. They are Elna Electronics, Nichicon Singapore (Nichicon), Panasonic Industrial Devices Singapore and Malaysia (Panasonic), Rubycon Singapore, and Singapore Guimi Gong (Chemi -con) .
The products involved in the sale of several companies punished were aluminum electrolytic capacitors, and the equipment used for this part included computers, loudspeakers, television sets, washing machines, refrigerators, etc. The investigation revealed that although five companies are competitors, they regularly visit Singapore. Hold meetings, switch confidential information and business sensitive information, such as customer valuations, sales, capacity, business planning, pricing strategies, etc. They also discuss and set prices at the meeting, including price increases, and say that collectives do not allow customers to reduce prices.
The conspiracy monopolistic behavior of these five companies can be linked to the wave of price increase in 2000.
In 2008, the economic crisis and 311 strong fire looted, Japan imposed high fines on five capacitor manufacturers.
In March 2016, the Japan Fair Trade Commission issued a press release announcing that a total of 667.96 million yen in fines had been imposed on five Japanese aluminum electrolytic capacitors/tantalum electrolytic capacitor factories, including Jiamei Engineering, for violation of the exclusive prohibition law. .
Among them, Jia Fine's fine was approximately 1.435 billion yen, Nichicon approximately 3.64 billion yen, Rubycon approximately 1.067 billion yen, Matsuo Electric (Matsuo Electric) approximately 427 million yen, and NEC Group's NEC Tokin was approximately 127 million yen.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission pointed out that during the period from 2010 to 2011, the above-mentioned capacitor manufacturers conducted talks under the pretext of the research meeting, or individually, to negotiate the selling prices of products and jointly decide on the increase. When the Lehman Storm in 2008 and the 311 strong earthquake in Japan in 2011, Due to the decrease in sales, the above capacitor factory carried out price control in order to ensure profit, and joint monopoly behavior.
The National Development and Reform Commission investigates the reasons for the increase in prices. The lack of evidence has not been initiated.
Before this episode, Microelectronics has conducted an in-depth investigation of the memory in 2017. Both of the capacitors are out of stock prices. Inside 2017, except for DRAM shortage of roasted seeds and nuts, Capacitors represented by MLCC are also substantially out of stock prices. The overall price increase range is 4- About 5 times, part of the material increased by 20 times, a few cents of the original capacitor price has risen to the chip price.
Previously, market analysis suggested that due to Murata, the Japanese original capacitor manufacturers such as Taiyo Yusen switched to high-end MLCC products such as automotive electronics, abandoned low-end and sub-high-end MLCC product markets, increased market demand gap, and extended the lead time. As a result, this led to the shortage of capacitors this year.
However, this was not actually the case. This is not the main reason for the shortage of capacitors. The source also points to Samsung. (See: revealing the inside story of DRAM and capacitor roasted seeds and nuts. .com/ss6/html/04/n-658804.html) .
However, the NDRC has revealed that due to lack of evidence, it failed to take further action.
2. MediaTek Group spreads the first shot of price increases, and Ricoh plans to increase prices by 8% to 10%
MediaTek rushed into gross margins, and reported that its power management chip factory Lizheng is planning to raise prices from the client to 8% to 10%. If it turns into a bureau, it will be the first shot of the price increase by MediaTek, which has favorable gross margins. Steady upwards, the second half is expected to stand above the 40% mark.
MediaTek has listed the promotion of gross margin as the top priority. Benefits have emerged in recent quarters. Taking the fourth quarter of last year as an example, the single-quarter gross margin has been raised to 37.4%, and the quarter has increased by one percentage point. The gross profit rate for the third consecutive quarter has increased, which is also nearly seven quarters. The highest number. Chief Executive of MediaTek Cai Lixing has repeatedly stated that he is confident in improving the market share of mobile computing and the 'double rate' performance of gross margin. The average growth rate of the growth product line will reach double digits in the next two to three years.
The gross profit margin of MediaTek fell below 40% since the fourth quarter of 2015. If the 4th quarter of this year can be returned more than 40%, it will be an important level after the 11th quarter to regain the '40% gross profit margin'. MediaTek It means there is no price increase plan.
In the supply chain, MediaTek's gross profit margin fell below 34% at the beginning of last year, and its operating strategy shifted to the highest gross profit margin. Recently, the target of gross profit margin control was spread from the parent company to the subsidiary, requiring each business body to defend the gross profit. Interest rate performance It is reported that last year it became a subsidiary of MediaTek’s revenue-producing high-tech subsidiary because of high costs and upward client demand. In consideration of the performance of gross margins, it is preparing to adjust the power management chip to the client. The quoted price rose between 8% and 10%.
The industry believes that from the product line of MediaTek, smart phone chips, TV chips, and optical storage chips are not easy to increase prices, and only Lixin’s power management chips are in a better position, and they have become the new mobile phone chips. The only option is the opportunity to increase prices.
It is reported that to improve the gross profit margin, MediaTek has already focused on revising the cost structure for smart phone chip lines that initially caused a straight decline in gross margins, and has seen success in these two quarters. Economic Daily
3. The graphics card is out of stock until June. News: Reluctant to be transferred to AI only when 'Miner'
The virtual currency 'mining' fever has remained high and led the graphics card maker to perform at a frantic pace. General manager Chen Jianwei pointed out that the expected graphics card will be out of stock until June of this year, but the company will not only be a 'miner', but will transition into the blockchain. , Artificial Intelligence (AI), Biotechnology, will launch blockchain applications in the second half of the year.
The mining boom continues to prolong, resulting in a shortage of graphics cards. According to Chen Jianwei, chips and DRAMs are now out of stock, causing prices to remain high, and there are some links with Bitcoin. So far, the graphics card is still out of stock. Keep pulling, but if bitcoin prices fall, it may cause the miners to quit. This market is hard to tell. I really don't know about the development of graphics cards.
Chen Jianwei emphasized that it is expected that the shortage of graphics cards will last at least until June of this year. Because PC graphics cards are also very fierce and are missing for almost nine months, it still depends on AMD, how many GPU chips NVIDIA will supply to the market, because Both AI and blockchain require GPUs, which are very useful in both areas.
Chen Jianwei pointed out that Xunxun cannot rely solely on being a 'miner', because the 'miner' is very bitter, and often 'mine disasters' occur. Virtual currency fluctuations are hard to tell, and prices may collapse tomorrow, so use this 'mine' The boom, the news should quickly find some new areas of investment.
On the 21st, the company participated in the inaugural meeting of Insilico Medicine's first AI research and development base in Asia, announcing its 100% shareholding in Sanitary Health and Ingenics, domestic biotechnology centers, and funding committees. Alliance, launched the 'AI digital health training program' to jointly develop AI medical doctors, blockchain, and big data related courses to accelerate the acquisition of artificial intelligence technology and drug development timelines.
Chen Jianwei said that Xun is now focusing on the AI, blockchain two major areas, Xun news can enter the blockchain, mainly because the company has been doing 'miners', this is the bottom of the application, you can go up later. The application of the chain is very wide, its development will be faster than AI, blockchain technology layout will be long, AI will be more accurate, so the news will start from the blockchain.
Infocom partners Ingram Micro, a global leader in artificial intelligence and blockchain technology focused on drug discovery, biotechnology development, aging and age-related disease research, is regarded as 2018 worldwide by renowned venture capital research organization CB Insights in Baltimore, USA. AI artificial intelligence hundred companies, but also by NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun pointed to as the most influential global five major artificial intelligence companies. Economic Daily
4. The physicists invent the world's smallest thermometer to help advance the development of nanotechnology
According to reports, the proof of concept of the new thermometer, pointed out that the prevention of overheating nanoelectronic devices explosion method.
In the 19th century, the thermometer manufactured by Breguet in Switzerland was the most accurate. Now, physicists have designed a method for measuring heat by detecting the movement of electrons. As electronic components become smaller and smaller, Currents that drive them are increasingly concentrated, and heat dissipation during operation is more difficult. In the end, the risk of system failure is greatly increased. The new method of measuring temperature is critical to prevent overheating of nanodevices. According to reports, the concept of a new thermometer Validation, pointing out ways to prevent overheating of nanoelectronic devices that cause explosions. This new technology can measure nano-scale boron nitride fragment temperatures in units of approximately half a micron (500 nanometers) to accurately identify heat build-up and identify accumulations. Location opened the way.
The method was published in the Physical Review Letters, a team led by Juan Carlos Idrobo, using a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA. The team was able to detect the thermal vibration of the sample. This is called Energy Gain and Loss Spectroscopy. This is called Energy Gain and Loss Spectroscopy. Although most of the electrons in the beam do not change when they pass through the sample, a small part of it slows down, adding some vibrational energy. A smaller fraction of electrons absorb energy and accelerate.
The relative number of occurrences of the two phenomena depends on the temperature: The more heat in the sample, the greater the possibility of electron acceleration. The team measured these energy conversions and found that they could be effective in the temperature range from room temperature to 1600 Kelvin. Readings. 'When using a mercury thermometer, you need to know the coefficient of thermal expansion, and for infrared imaging technology, the spatial resolution is limited by the infrared wavelength, to exceed 700 nm,' Idrobo explained. 'But this method directly measures the temperature, not Calibration. 'The difficulty with this approach is that the electrons that acquire or lose energy are signals that are 100,000 times weaker than the electrons that are not changing. What's worse is that in STEM beams, the energy transfer is smaller than the energy spread. Fortunately, the team was able to use the newly designed STEM, which was manufactured by American microscope manufacturer Nion. It emitted electrons with a narrower spread to allow the transfer of selected electron energy.
In addition to narrow energy transmission, Nion's STEM can also emit narrow beams with diameters of less than 1 nanometer. This allows new technologies to help explore the definition of temperature - this means that at a different energy level, the average temperature of a certain number of atoms 'Measuring the temperature of individual atoms is meaningless,' said Idrobo. Next, the researchers plan to explore the localization of temperature by applying measurement techniques to nanowires with temperature gradients. PCB probes are not easy, and Nion's STEM is more than 1.5 meters tall, much higher than the nanometer level. 'It's taking a few years to study how to apply it to (nano)samples, which itself is a doctoral level. Project,' Idrobo added. MIT Technology Review
5.IC Insights: IC Market Growth Increases to 15% in 2018
Original title: IC Insights: IC market growth increased to 15% in 2018, while DRAM jumped 36% in favor of the IC market
Collection of micro-network messages (compiler/Danyang) Considering recent years DRAM, NAND flash memory market has been in good shape in recent years, IC Insights recently updated the market size of 33 major IC products from 2018 to 2022, shipments, average sales price It is predicted that this year's IC growth valuation will be increased from the previous 8% to 15%. The biggest revision of this forecast is for the memory market, especially the DRAM and NAND flash parts. The DRAM and NAND flash memory market's growth forecast for 2018 is adjusted to 37% of DRAM is higher than the previous estimate of 13%, and NAND flash memory will be adjusted to 17%, higher than the previous estimate of 10%.
The DRAM market's forecast for 2018 has grown substantially, mainly because this year's ASP (average selling price) is expected to far exceed last year. IC Insights predicts that DRAM ASP will increase 36% over 2017 in 2018, and this market in 2017 A staggering 81% increase in speed. In addition, NAND flash memory is expected to grow by 10% this year and by 45% in 2017. Compared to the strong ASP growth of DRAM and NAND flash memory, the sales growth of these products is expected in 2018. Only increase 1% and 6%.
The relevant report claims that by 2018, the overall size of the DRAM market will reach 99.6 billion U.S. dollars, which is 37.5 billion U.S. dollars higher than the NAND flash memory market of 62.1 billion U.S. dollars. It will become the largest single product category in the IC industry. You can see from the chart. In the past five years, DRAM has become the key to the growth of the global IC market. Some analysts claim that memory quotes fell only 3% at the beginning of the year, and the decline was far less than the Q1 decline in the past three years. It is predicted that the quotation is expected to rise in the next six months. 10%. Research shows that suppliers will tend to increase prices in Q2 and Q3, refuting the market's originally forecasted decline of 5%-6% per quarter for the next four quarters.
Analysts believe that it takes 3-4 months for Micron's valuation to break through successfully. It is currently in the initial stage of another wave of big rally. Then it put forward many favorable factors for Micron, such as: DRAM quotation is expected from the second quarter In the recovery, the company will announce the first time in May for the distribution of dividends and stocks, and the continued expansion of NAND gross margin.