According to DIGITIMES, the delivery cycle of international IDM's automotive and industrial MCUs is still long, taking at least 30 weeks or more than a year, while Taiwan manufacturers in China are stepping up to fill the supply gap for consumer MCUs, especially 32-bit MCUs.
With the help of additional substituting capacity from Taiji, Reissa Electronics in Japan has now shortened the delivery time of the automotive MCU to 30-34 weeks, and it continues to outsource more back-end business to its Taiwan-based partners, including TeraPower Technology and Sunlight.
NXP's MCU delivery cycles now range from 30 to 50 weeks, Microchip's 16-bit MCUs have delivery cycles of 40 to 70 weeks, and its 32-bit MCUs have delivery cycles of 57 to 70 weeks. Microchip has indicated that it may still be unable to resume normal delivery times by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Italian Semiconductor and Infineon both reported tight supply for 8, 16, and 32 MCUs, which have been extended to at least 52-58 weeks due to slow expansion of their own wafer factories or contract partners.
With IDM focusing more on the production of high-end automotive and industrial MCUs, the supply gap of 32-bit MCUs for consumer devices such as fast chargers, commercial laptops and desktops, and 8-bit industrial MCUs is being filled by many Taiwanese manufacturers, including Xintang Technologies and Shengqun Semiconductors.
Most manufacturers have already acquired more wafer capacity from their contract partners, but because the end market is uncertain, they have difficulty passing on increased costs to downstream customers, so rising cost of the contract this year will put pressure on their gross margin.
IC Insights estimates that the global MCU market will exceed $21.6 billion in 2022, with 32 MCUs setting the highest compound annual growth rate in the next five years.
Post time: May-21-2022