One of the most important problems facing the global manufacturing industry today is "lack of core".

From cars to smart phones to game machine manufacturers, people are complaining, which may be the most serious crisis of chip shortage in several years.

among them, the automobile manufacturing industry has complained the most.

Recently, not only Japanese automakers such as Toyota and Honda, but also automakers such as Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors have cut production.

the most critical reason is that automobile companies can't complete automobile production without chips. Some insiders worry that if auto companies continue like this, the whole industry may even get into trouble.

it is the most important factor that the chip capacity is insufficient to meet the market demand, but why can smartphone manufacturers and game machine manufacturers get chips?

For chip manufacturers, the automobile industry is not the preferred customer. Smartphone manufacturers are the preferred customers in the chip industry for the simple reason that they are willing to buy more advanced and more profitable chips.

As orders from consumer electronics manufacturers such as smart phones rush to chip manufacturers, it is even worse for automobile manufacturers who already lack cores.

in the market, of course, profit is the final word.

and in this big battle for chip manufacturers' production capacity, automobile manufacturers lost.

some analysts believe that the fiasco of the automobile manufacturers highlights a problem: the supply chain between the automobile industry and the electronics industry has been disconnected for decades, and the latter is no longer only the automobile industry.

Ondrej Burkacky, a partner of McKinsey, said:

In a fit of pique, some large global automakers began to lobby the government, hoping that the government could mediate and give the automobile industry more chips.

in Germany, Volkswagen pointed the finger at chip suppliers and said that it had warned them in time in April last year-at that time, because Europe and America were in the first wave of epidemic, many automobile production capacity in the world was idle, but Volkswagen predicted at that time that the automobile industry would recover strongly in the second half of 22.

is it big enough to ask the government to intervene?

however, chip manufacturers are not convinced.

A source of a European chip manufacturer, who asked not to be named, said:

The implication is, why should the chip manufacturing industry listen to the automobile industry? !

yes, the automobile industry is the epitome of modern industry and has long been regarded as the weather vane of manufacturing industry.

for chip manufacturers, the automobile industry is not unimportant.

the automobile industry spends about $4 billion on chips every year, accounting for about one tenth of the global chip market.

however, the chip industry has more important customers.

Neil Campling, a technical analyst at Mirabaud, estimates that Apple spends more money on chips just to make the iPhone than the entire automobile industry.

in addition, chips used in automobiles are often basic products, which are not profitable for chip manufacturers, and in the eyes of some chip manufacturers, the chips needed in automobiles will soon be eliminated.

Asif Anwar of Strategy Analytics said:

Although Infineon, the leading chip supplier in the global automotive industry, and Bosch, both plan to debug the new chip factory this year, the supply shortage may not be alleviated soon.

professional chip manufacturers like Infineon outsource some of their automobile chip production to companies such as TSMC. However, these manufacturers are giving priority to supplying high-end electronics manufacturers due to limited production capacity.

in the long run, with the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and the development of functions such as assistance and autonomous driving, the automobile industry needs more advanced chips, and the relationship between chip manufacturers and the automobile industry will become closer and closer.

however, in the short term, there is no quick solution to the problem of insufficient supply of chips: IHS Markit estimates that in the first quarter of this year, about 1 million light vehicles around the world may not be delivered on time due to the short term of chips.

European chip industry executives and analysts agree that supply will not catch up with demand until later this year.

Anwar of Strategy Analytics said that the shortage of chips is producing a "snowball effect", and he predicted that the automobile production in Europe and North America will drop by 5%-1% in 221.

Recently, the earthquake in Japan and the snowstorm in the United States have further aggravated the supply shortage of chips.

the 213 earthquake in northeastern Japan caused the supply of photoresist, a key chip consumable dominated by Japanese companies in about 8% of the market, to be in a hurry, and the production and overseas supply of major suppliers such as Shinetsu were blocked, and Shinetsu even announced the closure of the factory. Photoresist is an essential key consumable for the production of wafer factories such as TSMC and UMC. With the urgent supply of photoresist, the shortage of chips may become more serious.

in Texas, USA, power outages occurred in many places due to the snowstorm, which led to the temporary closure of several wafer factories of Samsung, Infineon and NXP.

The shutdown of production capacity involves power/storage chips, further aggravating the tight supply. According to IC insight, Infineon Austin, Texas mainly produces 13nm process memory chips for automobiles and industrial markets, accounting for 5% of the company's total revenue last year. Samsung has two fabs in Austin, accounting for 28% of Samsung's total production capacity. Its products mainly focus on DRAM, NAND and SOCs.

NXP Austin's two factories account for about 3% of the company's total factory area, mainly producing MCU, MPU, power management devices, RF transceiver amplifiers and various sensors.

As the shutdown is a comprehensive shutdown at the request of Austin Energy Company, it has not been announced when it can be resumed.

Without the right time, the right place and the right people, today's automobile industry may continue to "lack the core" for some time.