Industry insiders told Jihoo.com that the market price of diodes has skyrocketed due to rising prices of raw materials and downstream applications. The original general-purpose diode, the ON Semiconductor 2N7002, had a maximum price of 4 cents per chip from last year. For 7 cents, the highest price rose more than 17 times.
The highest price of diodes exceeds 17 times
Due to the 'killing' among manufacturers, the profit margin of diodes has been continuously compressed. According to the past, the prices of diodes have dropped by 5%~8% every year. However, in recent years, due to the continued consolidation of the semiconductor industry, silicon wafers and The price of upstream metal materials continues to rise, and the key chip materials of rectifier diodes are out of stock. In addition, new application markets such as automotive electronics, smart homes, smart phones, and fast charging have developed rapidly. The number of diodes carried has almost doubled, driving diodes. The overall shipment volume surged, and the supply of rectifier diodes in the second half of 2017 was in short supply. The price of diodes not only did not decline as in previous years, but also responded to the rising prices of semiconductor components.
As early as last September, Taiwan factory Qiang Mao issued a diode price increase notice in the mainland factory, and then some diode manufacturers started to raise prices, and this year’s price increase trend is still strong.
According to industry insiders, traditional fuel vehicles are rapidly transforming into electric vehicles. The chargers on top of the electric vehicles themselves use diodes, MOS transistors, IGBTs, etc., and a large number of automotive charging poles require diodes, MOS transistors, and IGBTs. , The current smart home, IoT development is also rapidly consumes diodes, MOS transistors, IGBTs and other components.
At the same time, in the past two years, driven by the rapid growth of the Internet of Things and automotive markets, the demand for semiconductor components has grown exponentially, and related upstream chipsets and tripods have been in short supply, especially in the discrete device industry. Supply squeezed.
The cost of various raw materials is affected by multiple factors such as the soaring prices of wafers upstream from global semiconductors, and the multiple factors of copper wire and lead frames that have risen sharply in copper prices, which have seriously affected the product delivery cycle and supply quantity of diodes.
According to Future Electronics' report on the market for electronic components and 2018Q2, the lead time for MOSFET and Schottky diodes is generally around 8 to 12 weeks, but now it includes the products of Nexperia (Ansi Semiconductor), ONSemiconductor and other vendors. The delivery period of special-based diodes has been extended to 20-40 weeks, and the supply has risen.
According to the above-mentioned industry sources, a very common material, the ON Semiconductor 2N7002 Schottky diode, has risen by 4 cents from the previous year, and the highest price rises to 7 cents each. The highest price has risen more than 17 times. Something declined, but the overall increase was more than 10 times.
The production capacity is tight. It is expected that the orders will be discharged directly to the end of the year.
'Now there are a lot of diode brand manufacturers, diodes are also basically localized. Due to the shortage of Schottky wafers in the upstream, Schottky part of the diode products will also increase prices. 'Shenzhen diode original Chenda line electronic Ma Junjun interview When said.
Due to the tight supply of upstream raw silicon wafers, the production capacity of 6-inch and 8-inch wafer foundries in the middle reaches is full. Orders are not the biggest consideration for diode manufacturers this year, but they consider how to control production capacity under tight supply and demand conditions. These prices once killed red-eye diodes and returned to their desired level of profitability.
The industry is well aware that the profitability of diodes is not high. In the past few years, manufacturers have been slashing prices. Now the diode market is applied to an imbalance between supply and demand, and the price of upstream raw materials has increased, so manufacturers' prices are inevitable.
According to Hong Yang of Taiwan's diode factory, due to the impact of material shortages in the second half of last year, the cost of diode manufacturing will increase this year, and the price increase effect will intensify. Its own performance is expected to gradually increase. Hong Yang expects that this will affect the LED production costs. The company's second quarter profit growth.
According to sources in the industry, in view of the tight supply and demand conditions in the diode market, its applications are being deployed by international companies in the areas of automotive, industrial control, and IoT, which has led to a large shift in production capacity. Meanwhile, consumer electronic devices have adopted hundreds of flowers due to concepts such as AI. The demand for consumer diodes has grown at the same time, making a major shift in the diode industry that is not particularly valued.
In addition, many mobile phone manufacturers have begun to design and develop 5G mobile phones. The supporting communication power supplies are used on a large scale, such as diodes, which will further drive the diode market to continue to be popular.
Taiwanese manufacturers stated that the use of electric windows for vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, and audio-visual entertainment systems requires a large number of vehicle diodes. Together with the overall view, the growth rate of diode production capacity is limited. Except for 6-inch plants, foundry vendors are 4. The five-inch plant production capacity has been dispatched for emergency, and the wafer manufacturers will also carefully select orders. With the IDM plant, high-gain power components are prioritized.
'Diodes have relatively low gross margins, but at the same time, under tight production capacity, it is expected that diode market orders will be directly discharged to the end of this year, which will fully test manufacturers' supply capacity in terms of production capacity and supply. ' Industry insiders say that with this year's industry, As time approaches June, the peak season for the traditional consumer electronics industry in the third quarter is about to be prepared. The possibility of reversal of supply and demand will be greatly reduced, and diode prices will continue to heat up.