Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 5-3-24.
DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK:
S&P reported US mfg PMI decline in April to 50.0 vs 51.9 signaling an end to the 3-month trend of improvement on renewed decline in orders and slower output growth. ISM April mfg PMI data was even more cautious pointing to renewed decline in activity with PMI of 49.2 vs 50.3 in March.
S&P reported Eurozone mfg PMI dipped in April to 45.7 from 46.1, marking a 4-month low reflecting a sharper decline in orders and export demand vs the prior month offset by a shallower drop in output; forward-looking sentiment, however, improved for a second month to the strongest since Feb 22.
S&P/Caixin China’s private sector mfg PMI expanded to 51.4 in April from 51.1 in March, reaching the fastest pace in 14 months driven by an uptick in new export orders. Caixin added business confidence remained positive in China but eased from March as companies remained cautious about adding employees. In contrast, China’s official mfg PMI dipped in April to 50.4 from 50.8 in March, reflecting a second consecutive month of growth but a loss of momentum as orders were noted as stable while output expanded to 52.9, the highest since April 2023.
Headlines:
Auto
- BYD guides to 20% increase in 2024 shipments; 1Q profit increases at the slowest pace in 4 years on intensifying price war in China; BYD targeting doubling in exports to 500k units
- BYD reported 49% and 69% increase in overall and PHEV shipments in April, accelerating from recent months; BEV shipments growth decelerating to +29%
- EV maker Polestar to delay fourth-quarter results for a second time
- Mercedes vowes to steer clear of entering pricing wars; 1Q shipments seen as the trough for 2024
- Stellantis reported 10% decline in 1Q shipments and lower than expected profit on product mix and costs; maintains outlook for double-digit CY24 operating profit
- Tesla implements further layoffs, eliminating EV charging unit leadership
- Tesla wins government backing to launch driver assistance services in China
- April new auto sales in the US totaled 15.7M SAAR, flat Y/Y and slightly below third-party forecasts of 15.9M
Industrial
- 3M beats profit estimates on improved electronics demand
IP&E
- Murata reports improving orders and B2B above 1; guides to 4% growth over the next 12 months and improving utilization
Datacenter
- Sales growth for all major US cloud service providers accelerated in 1Q; cloud providers vowing to increase capex to address growing AI demand
Semiconductors
- AMD delivers in-line results and outlook on upside in PC and Datacenter offset by lower Gaming and Embedded sales; raises CY24 AI revenue to $4B
- ASE plans to build advanced packaging factory in Japan
- NXP sees relatively stable demand and double-digits increase in 2H sales, in part on channel replenishment
- onsemi sees incremental softening in 2Q demand and L-shaped 2H recovery; touts share gains in SiC
- Italy plans to invest €10B in chip manufacturing
- Skyworks provides weak 2Q outlook on slower than expected demand recovery in smartphones
- ST Micro and SiCrystal extend existing LTA for supply of SiC wafers
- Vanguard foundries sees customer inventor returning to normal in 2H24
- Qualcomm with strong results and outlook on demand for high-end smartphone chips
- Wolfspeed results and outlook missed expectations on slowing EV demand
- 1Q global wafer shipments declined 5.4% Q/Q according to SEMI
Other
- Arrow and Avnet guides further drop in revenue on further digestion in the West offset by improvement in IP&E and stabilization in APAC;
- Apple reports better than feared results and outlook; iPhone demand declines 10% Y/Y on one-time channel fill the prior year quarter
- 1Q global smartphone shipments increased 10% Y/Y according to Canalyst
